China: January 10, 2003

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A former foreign minister (John Chiang) admitted to a reporter that the US and Taiwan have long shared intelligence on China. This is no surprise, but it's something that has always been kept quiet so as not to get the Chinese agitated. This interview came in the wake of the announcement of US involvement in annual Taiwanese wargames, and also mentioned that there had long been over a hundred (un-uniformed) American military personnel assigned to work with the Taiwanese military. Apparently, the Pentagon is not amused by this disclosure.

A Taiwanese conference on defending Taiwan against Chinese missiles and aircraft saw several generals pointing out that it is a lot cheaper to deal with these threats by investing in offensive (your own missiles and bombers), rather than defensive (anti-missile missiles and more fortifications) measures. Historically, this is true, although the Chinese will not like it.