Ex-U.S. defense official advocates for strengthened training of Taiwan forces

Washington, March 26 (CNA) Randall Schriver, former U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, said Wednesday that the United States should "strengthen" its training of Taiwan's armed forces to help boost their combat readiness.

Schriver, now chairman of the board of the American think tank Project 2049 Institute, made the comment during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing as a witness, when he was asked by Republican Senator Dave McCormick about his views on the U.S. government's efforts to deter a cross-Taiwan Strait war.

In response, Schriver said it has been an evolutionary process, in which the U.S. has become more direct in language and rhetoric on the issue.

In addition, the U.S. has been moving into areas that were previously too sensitive, like the training of Taiwanese military forces, he said, adding that the U.S. should enhance its initiatives in those areas.

"We need to strengthen our training of Taiwan military forces," Schriver said. "That was a taboo for decades, and now we're getting them to a point where they're more professional, more proficient, as they're placing a greater emphasis on training."

As part of the cross-strait war deterrence strategy, the U.S. should also encourage Taiwan to look at more modernized command and control that will help optimize battlefield decisions, given the changing nature of warfare, he said.

"They need to look at a lot more unmanned, autonomous, and in every domain, including underwater," he said.

Schriver, who served as assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs during U.S. President Donald Trump's first term in office, also said that the U.S. needs to help develop the Philippines, particularly Northern Luzon, given its proximity to the Taiwan Strait.

The U.S. military has been helping to train Taiwan military forces for decades but has been doing so discreetly due to the sensitive nature of such actions.

In March 2024, Taiwan's then-Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) confirmed that American military personnel were being rotated to provide training to the armed forces in Taiwan, including conscripts, and Taiwanese soldiers were also receiving training in the U.S. He did not give any specifics for security reasons.

Wednesday's hearing in the U.S. Senate was titled "Shared Threats: Indo-Pacific Alliances and Burden Sharing in Today's Geopolitical Environment."

Before the hearing began, Republican Senator Jim Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said China's rising aggression in the Indo-Pacific region should be confronted, "but America should not be the world's only watchdog."

"To counter Chinese aggression, we need our allies to work with us to ensure each of us is strong and capable of pushing back," he said, calling for the allies to "expand U.S. basing and overflight access" around the Indo-Pacific.

"The best way to show China that we stand together is if we are physically present in the region," Risch said.