Taiwan Gets Its Weapons...At Least Some of Them

The Bush administration's announcement Friday that it plans to sell $6 billion in arms to Taiwan is an interesting one, and a sign that the Bush administration is trying to walk a very, very thin line between supporting Taiwan and enraging China.

For one, the package is considerably smaller than one that was being considered. Taiwan gets Apache helicopters, four Patriot anti-missile (PAC-3) batteries and 330 PAC-3 missiles, Javelin anti-tank missiles and spare parts for its air force, among other goodies. But what it doesn't get is almost as significant; the original package had included 60 Black Hawk helicopters, and a design study of how eight diesel-electric submarines might be built (not the subs themselves as I originally wrote). Taiwan also had asked for 2 extra Patriot batteries and 54 more missiles, but they didn't get those. For a full list of the sale to Taiwan check the website of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

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Posted by John Pomfret on October 3, 2008 4:54 PM