U.S. announces Taiwan arms sale

Finally, after years of hold-up in Taiwan’s legislature, followed by months of mysterious silence from the American side, a new arms deal for Taiwan has been announced. Taiwan will get about half of what it hoped for from the U.S., and a lot less than the previous, pro-independence administration in Taiwan had wanted.

Critics fear it is already too little, too late, arguing that the ‘balance of power’ across the Taiwan Strait has irreversibly shifted in favor of China. Others point out how difficult it has been historically to invade a country amphibiously.

The office of Taiwan’s new president, Ma Ying-jeou, praised the deal, saying it proved U.S.-Taiwan relations were improving after years of discord between Washington and the former DPP administration.

Ma has been making several diplomatic concessions to China since taking office in May. China has ignored them all, likely because it can, while the ousted DPP bemoans Ma’s strategy as a foolish playing of all his cards. Many believe Ma is actually working for Beijing rather than for his electorate. Ma will now use the arms deal to paint them as paranoid.

The US government has announced plans to sell about $6.5bn of weaponry to Taiwan, a move likely to anger China, which claims sovereignty over the island.

The sale, announced on Friday, includes 30 Apache attack helicopters, 330 Patriot missiles and 32 Harpoon submarine-launched missiles.

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency told members of the congress that the sale, which still needs to be approved by the politicians, would support Taiwan’s efforts to modernise its military.

Posted by Beagle17
"RSS here": http://feeds.feedburner.com/GnnBeagle17 Grew up in Nova Scotia. Hold BSc. in Biology and Grad. Diploma Journalism. Moved to Korea in 1997, and Taiwan in 1999. Currently teaching, writing, and doing Web design. Concerned about depleted...

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