The U.S. is expanding the number of troops it has stationed in Taiwan in an effort to strengthen a training program for the island's military as threats by China increase, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.
Plans call for between 100-200 troops to be sent to Taiwan in the coming months, according to the newspaper.
A year ago, there were about 30 U.S. troops, U.S. officials told the Journal.
The troop increase would be the largest deployment in decades by the U.S. on Taiwan.
The Pentagon has made an effort to keep the deployment quiet so as not to provoke China.
"One of the difficult things to determine is what really is objectionable to China," said one U.S. official about the training. "We don't think at the levels that we're engaged in and are likely to remain engaged in the near future that we are anywhere close to a tipping point for China, but that's a question that is constantly being evaluated and looked at specifically with every decision involving support to Taiwan."
The move to bolster the training on the island is part of a program to prepare the Taiwan military to be prepared in the event of a Chinese invasion.
The additional troops are set to train the Taiwan military on the use of U.S. weapons systems and on military steps to fight off the Chinese.
Officials told the Journal that plans for the additional deployment have been in the works for months — long before the China spy balloon made its way across the U.S. before being shot down.
But China's People's Liberation Army has been sending planes and ships near Taiwan in aggressive maneuvers. China's military harassment of self-ruled Taiwan, which it claims is its own territory, has intensified in recent years, The Associated Press noted.
In one incident, China's military sent 71 planes and seven ships toward Taiwan in a 24-hour display of force directed at the island in late December Taiwan's defense ministry said.
A spokesman at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command declined to comment on the Journal's story.