No Marines slated for de facto U.S. embassy in Taiwan

Associated Press April 22, 2008

No Marines slated for de facto U.S. embassy in Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The United States has no immediate plans to send Marine guards to its de facto embassy in Taiwan, a U.S. official said.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the United States does not "intend to place Marines, at this point" at the American Institute in Taiwan.

Casey's comment in Washington on Monday followed the weekend publication in two Taiwanese newspapers of a State Department advertisement calling for contractors to build a facility to house Marines at the new AIT compound in Taipei. It is customary for the United States to put Marine guards in its embassies and consulates worldwide. Casey said the ad in the Taiwanese newspapers may have been confusing. "What is happening is there are discussions about having a new compound or new complex built to replace the existing AIT structure in Taipei," he said. "The notices that have gone out have included the broadest possible kinds of elements that might be included in there."

Since the United States switched its recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, there have been no Marine guards at its Taipei facility in keeping with the deliberately low American profile on Taiwan. Almost 60 years after Taiwan and China split amid civil war, the United States does not treat the island as an independent country. Instead, it acknowledges China's claim that Taiwan is part of Chinese territory, and calls on the two sides to reach a final agreement on Taiwan's status through peaceful means. The new U.S. compound in Taipei is a part of a large-scale State Department overseas construction program. The facility, to be built in the city's Neihu district, will replace an aging downtown compound.

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GJS