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U.S.-Taiwan Arms Sale Irks China

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Posted on Jan 30, 2010
Wikimedia Commons

The proposed arms deal includes the sale of 114 Patriot missiles to Taiwan.

The U.S. State Department has defended a proposed deal to sell $6.4 billion in weapons to Taiwan, claiming the exchange would aid “security and stability” between the island and its mainland big brother, China.

China has announced a series of retaliatory moves against the proposed weapons deal—including sanctioning U.S. arms companies—only the latest episode in an increasingly tension-filled relationship between Washington and Beijing in recent years. —JCL

The BBC:

The US has defended a proposed weapons sale to Taiwan following a furious response from China.

The US State Department said on Saturday that the sale contributed to “security and stability” between Taiwan and China, Reuters reported.

Beijing announced a series of moves against the US in retaliation for the proposed $6.4bn (£4bn) sale.

Ties between the two countries are already strained by rows over trade and internet censorship.

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By denk, January 31, 2010 at 9:16 pm Link to this comment

By Jim Yell,
**As long as we don’t get involved in fighting for Taiwan, I think Taiwan should have the means to defend themselves**


there was no tw “crisis” for a very long time until , that’s when u put your dirty paw in to muddle the water.
you have certainly done more than your fair share of “policing” around the world now, why dont u just butt out and start sorting out your own mess at home for a change dude ?
http://tinyurl.com/3d5xtl

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By Jim Yell, January 31, 2010 at 1:47 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Taiwan is not part of china, nor has it been for a very long time. As to China getting their noses out of joint about it, we only need to mention the magic word “Tibet”.

As long as we don’t get involved in fighting for Taiwan, I think Taiwan should have the means to defend themselves. They certainly are not going to launch an invasion of China, that foolishness has fallen to reality. Taiwan is just worried about being bullied by China. As long as they can defend themselves than any change in China/Taiwan relations will have to be negotiated and not won by bullying.

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By purplewolf, January 31, 2010 at 12:43 pm Link to this comment

Since America was founded it has been in over 200 wars all over the world and don’t forget it was founded on wars to become America. Native Indians know this well. We are out numbered a little over 3 to 1 against China in population. Our military, whom we send into war often have a few months training before being shipped off to war, yet these same talking heads say it will take over 9+ more years to train the military in these other countries to be able to take over the fighting we are now doing for them. I say b.s. Leave immediately and see how fast these people learn how to defend themselves. After all they have been fighting for thousands of years, well before America was ever even though of. So that tired out line that we have to stay there and train their people how to fight doesn’t cut it. We do not need to sell weapons to Taiwan-we have been buying our bullets for our soldiers from China as it is now.

America needs to divorce itself from the MIC and mind it’s own business when it comes to interfering with the rest of the world and if the PTB claim that arming everyone in the world against each other levels the playing field,they need a new mindset. We are the #1 warmonger of the world.


Destroy Earth first, we’ll deal with the rest of the galaxy later.

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By denk, January 31, 2010 at 10:06 am Link to this comment

amerikka’s SOCIOPATHIC FOREIGN POLICY
From Korea to Colombia…......
just who is taunting whom across the tw straits ?
http://tinyurl.com/dcw659

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By gerard, January 31, 2010 at 9:53 am Link to this comment

It seems obvious that money kills conscience. CEOs who accept huge bonuses with a smile and then take pride in giving some of it to the “poor starving whoevers” are only giving lip-service to human kindness.  War kills conscience—temporarily at the least.  Can you imagine Pentagon people “feeling sorry for” people they kill, or are planning to kill? How come people who work building weapons don’t quit because of guilt or a sense of civic responsibility? (And because they don’t quit, the MIC becomes our leading industry!)  How come responsibility is so easily disguised as “patriotism”? Even the sophisticated intellectuals who built The Bomb at Los Alamos buried their sense of humanity deep in an abstraction: “Science has known sin.” and walked away?  How come we don’t all have PTSD? Answer:  Because we are already half dead?

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skulz fontaine's avatar

By skulz fontaine, January 31, 2010 at 9:24 am Link to this comment

Golly, can Amerika really afford to stick a thumb in the eye of the Chinese? I
mean, China has been financing all that war and stuff. Hmmm, maybe Obamaco
thinks they can ‘war’ on the world. Dumb-ass U.S. military can’t handle the
Afghan insurgents. Gen. Stanisurge is gonna tackle the Russians, China, Iran, and
the North Koreans? Seems like military strategy from a comprehensive lunatic.
Gen. Stanisurge is used only as power-point presentation for lunacy in U.S.
military thinking. Well and the lunacy that is U.S. foreign policy. Amerika am out
of freaking control.

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By NZDoug, January 30, 2010 at 3:22 pm Link to this comment

Smell that jet fuel, thats the smell of Democracy…..
Nothing good can come this.

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By gerard, January 30, 2010 at 1:02 pm Link to this comment

MISSILES R US and don’t you forget it!  Joblessness would go up several points if we stopped arming the world’s people against each other here and there. 

It’s called power.  It’s call business.  It’s called “the great game,” “equal access” and “strategic dominance.”  Never mind that it gradually boxes everyone in and increases the likelihood of worldwide destruction when some idiot accidentally pushes the wrong button. 

And be sure to remember that “relations are already strained, etc. etc.”  Fear keeps wars going and helps sell more weapons.

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