Ministry denies reports on visit by US Marine CorpsBy Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNAThe Ministry of National Defense yesterday issued a statement refuting rumors that US Marine Corps members are to visit Taiwan to help train Taiwanese troops. Local media reports on Monday said that US instructors are to begin training Taiwanese marines and amphibious special force units in assault boat and speedboat infiltration operations for four weeks at the Zuoying Naval Base in Kaohsiung. US Department of Defense spokesman John Supple on Wednesday sent an e-mail to the US military’s Stars and Stripes newspaper to say that news reports about US Marines training Taiwanese soldiers are “inaccurate.”“The United States remains committed to our ‘one China’ policy,” Supple wrote. Ministry spokesman Major General Shih Shun-wen (史順文) yesterday said that rumors that the Marine Raiders, a special operations forces under the US Marine Corps, working with the Republic of China Marine Corps lacked factual basis, calling on the media and others not to propagate false information. The Republic of China Navy yesterday issued a statement, saying that scheduled exercises between Taiwan and the US are to commence normally, while declining to comment further on the issue.

Source: Taipei Times November 12, 2020 15:56 UTC