u/SE_to_NW

According to the Wikipedia article on United States military deployments, over 53k military personnel are stationed in Japan and over 23k personnel are stationed in South Korea; while Taiwan gets only a share of the 462 American military personnel stationed across the rest of the Asia-Pacific.

South Korea is the American-backed Korean nation, so it doesn't surprise me that it hosts a very large number of American military personnel. But how come the same didn't happen to Taiwan, the American-backed Chinese nation (even before official recognition was revoked from Taiwan)?

Likewise, the other countries used for basing American troops for power projection against the PRC are Japan and the Philippines, both of which are further from the PRC mainland than Taiwan is.

One can argue that South Korea needs so many troops because North Korea strongly wants to conquer them. But the PRC strongly wants to conquer Taiwan too (sure there is the Taiwan Strait protecting Taiwan; but unlike North Korea, the PRC is a highly populous, technologically-advanced, well-fed nation). In contrast, the PRC doesn't want to conquer Japan (aside from the Senkaku Islands dispute).

Is there a geographical reason why the USA wants to station many troops in Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines; but does not/cannot station many troops in Taiwan?

paywalled

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