The U.S. has intensified plans to evacuate Americans living in Taiwan, The Messenger reported.
The plans, which have been underway for at least six months, have "heated up over the past two months or so," a senior U.S. intelligence official told The Messenger.
The report came a day after Taiwan's air force scrambled into action after spotting 10 Chinese warplanes crossing the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, as the island's defense ministry said four Chinese warships also carried out combat patrols.
The intelligence official told The Messenger that a "heightened level of tension" had driven the evacuation preparations.
"It's nothing you wouldn't read in the news," the official told The Messenger. "Forces building up. China aligning with Russia on Ukraine."
The outlet reported that the evacuation planning has been kept quiet because it's a sensitive subject for the Taiwanese government.
"Even talking about an [evacuation plan] starts people thinking something may be going on even if it is just prudent planning,” a former State Department official told The Messenger.
Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was involved in the 1975 evacuation of Americans from Saigon. He told The Messenger that planning for an evacuation from Taiwan "is a very prudent thing to do."
"The fact that the U.S. is doing this doesn't mean that they expect there will be a war," Cancian told The Messenger. "It's only a statement that there could be a war."
Experts agree that any evacuation from Taiwan would pose multiple challenges due to the country’s geography, as well as hundreds of thousands of other foreigners likely attempting to evacuate.
One source told The Messenger that there’s often only one main route between any two points on the island, and that the many tunnels could become chokepoints.
The Messenger reported that the planning began after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
"Ukraine drove a relook at what the plans were," one source told the outlet.
In a statement to Newsmax, the Department of Defense said:
“Secretary Austin and other DOD leaders have been very clear. We do not see a conflict in the Taiwan Strait as imminent or inevitable. He spoke about this most recently in Singapore (below) and at length in recent HASC/SASC hearings. We wouldn’t be able to comment on NEO plans for a hypothetical invasion scenario.”
Some U.S. officials have said an invasion could happen in the coming years, while other officials and experts doubt the Chinese government will resort to force in its longstanding pledge to “reunify” with Taiwan, The Messenger reported.
As of 2019, more than 80,000 Americans were in Taiwan.
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