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Thursday, August 25, 2011

An Old Strategy

So what part of Taiwan's freedom and liberty does President Ma think he can feed Peking first? Said the president to one of our admirals (according to WikiLeaks):

PLA activities in recent months demonstrated that Taiwan may need to move beyond economic discussions into political discussions with the mainland.

You know, at some point we have to worry that we might sell Taiwan some military technology that will get passed along to China if Taiwan just surrenders (in whole or in part). It may seem obvious (to conservative critics of President Obama) that President Obama's fear of China is what is stalling the F-16 sale, but maybe it is fear of Taiwan. We screwed up by selling the Shah of Iran the F-14 back in the day, if you'll recall.

One might be excused if one thinks this is one of China's aims with their cross-strait charm offensive. They do want Taiwan over all else, it seems:

As China continues rapidly modernizing its military, the country’s leaders are still largely focusing their efforts on Taiwan, according to a Pentagon report released on Wednesday.

The military balance can be shifted by reducing the other guy, too, right?