Friday, February 26, 2010

A Hint of Things to Come?

China is still upset about upgrades to Taiwan's defenses:

China's military warned the United States against considering selling fighter jets to Taiwan, telling Washington to "speak and act carefully"[.]

China already got us to delay the sale. The question now is whether Chinese pressure will delay or halt the sale--already inadequate to reverse the decline in Taiwan's capabilities to defend themselves from China in my opinion.

Taiwan seriously needs to consider what they will do when Chinese power enables Peking to pressure America even more successfully than they do now. Who'd have thought China could even delay a sale of F-16s? But Chinese pressure is apparently working more now than it did in the past, and could work more effectively on us in the future (it has already worked on Europe to isolate Taiwan from their weapons).

I hate to say it, but Taiwan should consider buying Russian fighter aircraft (and submarines).