US May Post Marines in Taiwan

[unhappycamper]

US May Post Marines in Taiwan
April 19, 2008
Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan - The United States may post Marines at its unofficial embassy in Taiwan - a small but symbolically significant change in its delicate political relationship with the self-ruled island.

A State Department advertisement in the English-language Taipei Times newspaper called for contractors to construct quarters for Marine security guards at a new U.S. compound in the capital Taipei.

Since the U.S. switched its recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, there have been no marine guards at its Taipei facility - the American Institute in Taiwan - in keeping with its deliberately low political profile.

It is customary for the U.S. to put marine guards in its embassies and consulates worldwide.

Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949. China continues to claim the island as its territory, and threatens to attack Taiwan if it seeks to make the break permanent.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/us-may-post-marines-in-taiwan.html