BIDEN REGIME TO AMERICANS: “GET OUT OF TAIWAN”

Planning Is Underway, But No Official Announcement

The author and friends outside Taichung, Taiwan, Christmas Day 1972.

Many of my readers are aware that my husband and I taught college English in Taiwan during the Nixon Administration. China was chomping at the bit to take over Taiwan then, as well.  We never doubted that the US State Department would do everything it could to evacuate American citizens should an invasion occur. 

THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW

With a weak man acting as president, now is the best time for the Chinese Communist Party to invade Taiwan.  Biden’s handlers know that, so they are reportedly preparing plans to evacuate Americans from Taiwan. Do they know something we don’t know? Probably. 

These preparations have not been publicly confirmed by the White House nor the State Department; however, three sources familiar with the plans told The Messenger that the Biden Regime's work preparing for an evacuation of U.S. citizens began roughly six months ago when Speaker McCarthy announced that he would visit Taiwan (just six months after Speaker Pelosi visited the island nation).*  The evacuation plans have "heated up over the past two months or so," according to a "senior U.S. intelligence official" quoted by The Messenger. 

Given the fact that US citizens are still stranded in Afghanistan after the disastrous withdrawal in August 2021 (almost TWO YEARS AGO!), there are lasting questions about the regime's ability to safely run an evacuation.  Indeed, Biden and the State Department have apparently abandoned these Americans.  The same fate probably awaits the 80,000 Americans residing in Taiwan, Republic of China.

Evacuating 80,000 people should China take action to launch an invasion would be a very difficult undertaking.  There's plenty of reason to doubt Biden's ability to guarantee Americans' safe passage out of Taiwan if it comes under attack.  The current U.S. presence is limited to some 200 troops and even that micro presence is a source of tension with China.

BIDEN REGIME IS KEEPING PLANS SECRET, OTHER NATIONS ARE NOT

The U.S. government hasn’t discussed the preparations publicly. The State Department declined a request for comment.  A former State Department official said, "Even talking about an [evacuation plan] starts people thinking something may be going on even if it is just prudent planning.”  Some U.S. officials have said an invasion could happen in the coming years, while other officials doubt the Chinese government will resort to force in its longstanding pledge to “reunify” with Taiwan.

Planning for an evacuation from Taiwan “is a very prudent thing to do,” said Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic & International Studies who has run Taiwan war games and was involved in the 1975 evacuation of Americans from Saigon. But he added:  “The fact that the U.S. is doing this doesn't mean that they expect there will be a war. It’s only a statement that there could be a war.”

John McLaughlin, a former acting director of the CIA, said that a basic but critical step for evacuation planning in Taiwan is identifying and locating Americans citizens on the island.  “One thing they might do, I would do, is I would be finding a way to tell Americans there to register in this database,” McLaughlin told The Messenger, referring to the State Department’s registry for American citizens living abroad. 

The American Institute of Taiwan, which has handled diplomatic work ever since President Carter removed the U.S. embassy, appears to have been taking McLaughlin’s advice.  In February, it posted a message on its website with the headline “Preparing Now for Disasters,” reminding Americans that Taiwan is in a “region prone to disasters” and encouraging them to enroll in the registry and have “go-bags” and personal documents ready. 

Other governments have already drawn up evacuation plans for Taiwan or are in the process of doing so, including Indonesia, which has roughly 300,000 citizens in Taiwan, the largest foreign population on the island, made up mostly of migrant workers. Officials from the Philippines, which has about 150,000 citizens in Taiwan, have also said they have contingency plans in place. And last year, Japan and Taiwan began talks on an evacuation plan for Japanese citizens. 

*McCarthy changed his mind about visiting Taiwan.  Instead, he met with Taiwan’s president at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA.