THE RISING EAST

By Richard Halloran

At the U.S. Military Academy graduation ceremony in June, a cadet from Taiwan marched up to receive his diploma, becoming the first soldier from his nation ever to graduate from West Point.

A few weeks earlier, a marine captain from Taiwan completed a grueling 30-week course run by the U.S. Navy's SEAL commandos and received his golden trident insignia.

The West Pointer, Lee Wu-ling, has returned to Taiwan, where he has been commissioned a second lieutenant in his nation's army. The marine, Yu Kuei-lin, also has gone home, where he was congratulated by President Chen Shui-bian before starting to train other marines in maritime special operations.

A Taiwan soldier aimed a U.S.-made howitzer during a 2001 exercise on Peiken Island, just six miles off the coast of China. Tensions remain high between Washington and Beijing because in the last five years, Taiwan's military aid from America has grown to a level exceeded only by that given to Egypt and Israel. AP library photo

On one side, the alliance is intended to deter a Chinese attack on Taiwan by showing Beijing that the United States and Taiwan are working together. On the other, the partners try to avoid antagonizing the Chinese, who claim sovereignty over Taiwan and vigorously denounce every instance of U.S.-Taiwan collaboration.

In the last five years, beginning in the Clinton administration and continuing under President Bush, Taiwan has become the world's third-largest recipient of U.S. security assistance, behind Egypt and Israel.

A Defense Department spokesman declined to disclose the dollar value of that assistance, but pointed to clues in a Pentagon report. It said deliveries and future commitments in U.S. military sales to Taiwan in 2003 amounted to $1.1 billion, compared with $1.3 billion to Israel and $1.9 billion to Egypt.

Most attention in Washington and Taipei — and bitter opposition in Beijing — has been directed at arms sales, including a proposed package of submarines, aircraft and missiles that inched forward in Taiwan's national Legislature last week.

The more telling American aid, however, has been in training Taiwan's young officers, rendering operational advice to senior officers and coordinating war plans. About 200 military people from Taiwan are studying in the United States, including 39 at military academies, according to Taiwan's de-facto embassy in Washington.

In return, West Point cadets have visited the military academy in southern Taiwan for a two-week orientation. A lieutenant colonel from Taiwan, Ken Chang, has been teaching a course at West Point on Sun Tzu, the Chinese strategic thinker who wrote the classic "Art of War" 2,500 years ago.

American colonels and Navy captains often travel to Taiwan to observe Taiwanese training, evaluate command and communications practices, and urge Taiwan's leaders to integrate the operations of their air, sea and land forces. To avoid attracting Chinese criticism, American officers do not wear their uniforms in Taiwan.

At a higher level, Taiwan and the United States have separately devised contingency plans to repel a Chinese assault, because Beijing repeatedly has threatened to attack if the government in Taipei declares formal independence. The United States would be obliged to help defend Taiwan unless the Taiwanese deliberately provoked Chinese hostilities.

U.S. and Taiwanese military leaders have begun coordinating those plans, with Taiwan more forthcoming, since the Americans are worried that their plans would leak.

U.S.-Taiwan military collaboration started in 1996 after China fired missiles in the direction of Taiwan and the United States deployed two aircraft carriers to nearby waters.

Michael Pillsbury, a longtime China hand and associate fellow at the Pentagon's Institute for National and Strategic Studies, has written that American and Taiwanese strategic thinkers began meeting in Monterey, Calif., in 1997. The focus has been on strategy, not arms sales, in the ensuing eight rounds of discussions.

In 1998, a Pentagon delegation quietly visited Taiwan at the invitation of Defense Minister Tang Fei to discuss national strategy. The following year, U.S. teams visited Taiwan to assess the island's air defenses, anti-submarine operations and plans for countering a Chinese invasion.

The Pentagon decided in April 2001 that arms sales to Taiwan would be considered as needed, not just once a year. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz flew to Florida to meet Defense Minister Tang Yao-ming during a conference of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, the highest-level contact in two decades.

Later, American officers encouraged Taiwan to plan procedures for operating with U.S. forces and others if that became necessary. As Pillsbury asserted: "If deterrence fails, Taiwan, supported by the U.S. and its allies, must be prepared to swiftly defeat the PRC's (People's Republic of China's) use of force."

Richard Halloran of Honolulu is a former New York Times correspondent in Asia.