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Subject: McCain Wants F-16 Sale to Taiwan
Softwar    10/8/2008 9:49:20 AM
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b93d3c64-94d1-11dd-953e-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1 McCain urges rethink on jet sales to Taiwan John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, on Tuesday urged the Bush administration to reconsider a decision not to sell F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan. "These sales ... would help retain America’s edge in the production of advanced weaponry and represent a positive sign in these difficult economic times,” the Arizona senator said. “We should seek co-operative and productive relations with China that proceed in a spirit of confidence, and we should promote the improvement of cross-strait relations ... However, we should understand that the possibility of productive ties between Taiwan and China are enhanced, not diminished, when Taipei speaks from a position of strength.”
 
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tigertony    Will it matter?   10/8/2008 12:57:45 PM
 
 
China Brief
Volume 8, Issue 6 (March 14, 2008) | http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/images/pdf-icon.gif" alt="" /> Download PDF Version

 
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

China's Military Budget Spurs Debate Over the Taiwan Strait

By Russell Hsiao

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/uploads/2057deputy%20generals.jpg" width="100" align="right" border="1" alt="" />
Taiwan's Ministry of Defense announced on March 11 that China's real defense budget is most likely to be two to three times more than the reported amount from the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (China Times, March 11). Last week China announced that its 2008 military spending would jump 17.6 percent over the 2007 figure to $59 billion. Taiwan's Ministry of Defense estimates that the true figure actually ranges from $110 billion to $170 billion. The ministry claims that such items like research in technology, arms sales and purchases, outsourcing done by the defense industry and the budget for the military police were not included in the national defense budget.

In a weekly briefing held by the Ministry of Defense on developments concerning the People?s Liberation Army (PLA), Colonel Gong Chien-hua, an intelligence expert in the deputy chief of staff's office, said that according to the ministry's intelligence, on March 5, Liao Xilong, director of the PLA General Logistics Department, stated that the 17 percent increase is required to off set rising costs in living and commodity prices, and for the PLA's on-going informatization campaign (China Times, March 11).

In a commentary published on China Daily,
 
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YelliChink       10/8/2008 5:38:59 PM
With KMT now in charge of both admin and parliament, budget gets passed without problem. DPP isn't going to, can can't make their way to filibuster major armed purchase anytime soon. Commies will make noise for whatever weapons system sold to ROC, but they're not going to do much, since they now have much difficult problems to deal with: Chinese people.
 
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