US hints at posting Marine guards at new de facto embassy in Taiwan

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
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 US State Department advertisement in the English-language Taipei Times newspaper called for contractors to construct quarters for Marine security guards at a new US compound in the capital, Taipei. Since the US 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 US to put marine guards in its embassies and consulates worldwide.