TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The US should withdraw all military personnel from Taiwan, the Washington D.C.-based think tank Defense Priorities said in a report published on Wednesday.

If the training is necessary, it can be provided in the US, the report said. The think tank claimed that Taiwan assumes the US would intervene if China attacked. 

Though Taipei has increased defense spending, it is insufficient given its security challenges, it said, adding the US “has been too willing to carry the additional burden.” Maintaining a US-centric security framework in the Indo-Pacific is expensive and “risks pulling it into a war that does not advance its core interests,” according to the report.

The think tank argued the current US regional posture is “too offensively oriented” and is within China’s strike range, putting US servicemembers and military assets at risk. Additionally, the US is “more likely to provoke escalation than deter Chinese aggression,” it said.

The report comes amid calls from US experts and government officials for more Taiwan-US military cooperation. 

US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs John Noh told the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee in April that the Pentagon is “working to prioritize our security systems to Taiwan.”

“Arming Taiwan and strengthening Taiwan’s defense capabilities is extremely important for not only the defense of Taiwan, but for strengthening our posture and re-establishing deterrents,” Noh said.

At a House hearing on China in May, Senior Director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation and retired US Navy Admiral Mark Montgomery said the Pentagon should increase personnel in Taiwan to 1,000. 

“We absolutely have to grow the joint training team in Taiwan,” Montgomery said, according to Stars and Stripes. “If we are going to give them billions of dollars in assistance, sell them tens of billions of dollars’ worth of US gear, it makes sense that we would be over there training and working.”