Thursday, September 22, 2011

America Caves to China Pressure

Ouch.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A U.S. decision not to sell Taiwan new F-16 fighter jets is being seen by many U.S. allies in Asia as a sign of China's growing clout.

The pre-eminent military power in East Asia for a half-century, the U.S. has explicitly and implicitly provided a security umbrella for countries from Singapore to Japan, helping to keep the peace that has fostered stunning economic growth.

While few of these allies believe the U.S. is lessening its commitment to the region, they still see Washington's refusal to make the F-16 sale — privately confirmed by congressional aides Sunday and then made public Wednesday — as showing a new deference to Chinese interests.

Here's the idiocy of this... unless America is abandoning the region, which I don't think we are, then it is in America's best interests to sell Taiwan the means to defend themselves. Otherwise, if the region flares up, it will be American fighters and warriors on the front line. If we are abandoning the region to its fate, then that's an entirely different story.

(5) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1905 hrs
Foreign Affairs + Military + Politics + Politics - General

  1. Chinese President: “Your choice obama, either you refuse the sale of these jets to Taiwan, or we foreclose on D.C. and New Orleans. What will it be?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 22, 2011 at 1930 hrs


  2. Chinese Checkers:)

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 22, 2011 at 1946 hrs


  3. I threw this out there on a socialist blog a couple months ago and was accused of conspiracy ‘manchurian candidate’ rhetoric…

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 22, 2011 at 2005 hrs


  4. The bigger problem is that this is at loggerheads with what we will have to do in terms of military budget cutting.    We are going to withdraw from a large part of the world and the logical decision should be to sell the arms and make it clear to part of the world that it will have to take more responsibility of its’ own defense.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 23, 2011 at 0758 hrs


  5. It appears they may have been trying to help us with this purchase.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 25, 2011 at 1440 hrs


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