China's top official newspaper warned today that "madmen" on Capitol Hill who want the United States to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan were playing with fire and could pay a "disastrous price", as the Obama administration nears a decision on a sale.
I hope we tell Peking to shove it. And sell Taiwan the planes they need to defend themselves.
As I've noted, the sale isn't even about Taiwan's defense needs at this point. It is about our reliability as a defense partner in the western Pacific in the face of China's bullying of neighbors to restore China's position as the middle kingdom around which neighbors orbit and conform their policies. The price we'd pay from refusing the sale will exceed whatever China tries to make us pay for making the sale.
If we can't stand up to the Chinese, how can we expect our allies to do so?
NOTE: I do have a small number of Lockheed Martin shares. If the company went broke tomorrow, my losses would be negligible. But I should note this since Lockheed Martin makes the plane. Given the post-Cold War shuffling of defense companies, I can forget who makes what. This article noted the manufacturer.
