A nonprofit organization dedicated to saving Americans abroad whose lives are at risk is currently preparing for the possibility they may conduct rescue missions in Taiwan and mainland China ahead of a possible conflict.
China views the island of Taiwan as a rogue province and has threatened to take it by force, and while the U.S. does not recognize Taiwan’s independence, it also does not want to see any unilateral shift in the status quo. Beijing’s military modernization and nuclear expansion, plus its more aggressive posture toward Taiwan, have raised concerns that China could try to take Taiwan militarily in the coming years.
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Project Dynamo is a nonprofit organization made up of former U.S. military and intelligence officials who came together in August 2021 to rescue Americans who were unable to leave Afghanistan before the military withdrew at the end of the month and were essentially left behind. Since then, they have continued their effort to rescue Americans that the U.S. military was not planning on saving at that time in countries across the world.
“I think the answer is maybe, or it depends,” Bryan Stern, a combat veteran and the founder of Project Dynamo, told the Washington Examiner when asked if they’d carry out rescue missions in mainland China as well as Taiwan. “I think it remains to be seen if Americans are stuck and we can get them out from wherever they are….”
He added, “There’s a lot more Americans in China than there are in Taiwan, even though there’s plenty in Taiwan. If you’re an American in China [when the war starts], it’s also going to be a crummy day. You know what I mean? It’s not just about Taiwan. Mainland China is pretty rough, too. The way we’re kind of conceptualizing it is what do we do for Americans that are in mainland China, where the Americans won’t be the most popular team in town on that day.”
Project Dynamo has coined the mission name “Marco Polo” for potential rescues in Taiwan and China. They have rescued more than 6,000 people from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Russia, Sudan, Israel, Gaza, Maui after the wildfires, and Florida after Hurricane Ian in the less than three years they’ve operated.
The group operates entirely on a donation basis and does not receive any government funding. The group does not want to interfere with any U.S. military or intelligence mission, so it asks the government if it can proceed with an operation beforehand, and in every case, Stern said, the administration gave the group the green light.
President Joe Biden met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in October in what was billed as a chance to simmer the growing tension between the two adversaries. The leaders agreed to restart military-to-military communications after Beijing cut them off in August of last year in response to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s (D-CA) visit to Taiwan. Gen. Charles Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met virtually with his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Liu Zhenli, last week, ending that freeze about two months after the leaders’ meeting.
“[Xi told Biden] that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with mainland China but that the timing has not yet been decided,” NBC News reported, citing three sources familiar with the conversation. “Chinese officials also asked in advance of the summit that Biden make a public statement after the meeting saying that the United States supports China’s goal of peaceful unification with Taiwan and does not support Taiwanese independence.”
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Biden did not follow through with the request.
Xi said at last year’s Chinese Communist Party Congress that they would attack Taiwan if the island nation of roughly 24 million people declares independence with foreign support.
Biden has said multiple times during his administration that the U.S. military would defend Taiwan if China invaded, which would represent a shift in U.S. policy, but the White House has walked back his comments each time.
