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Article: Taiwan leader pushes US arms deal; President Chen this week renewed a request to approve a multibillion-dollar arms purchase.(WORLD)
- Article from:
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Article date:
- January 10, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 The Christian Science Publishing Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Robert Marquand Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
TAIPEI, TAIWAN -- In a bid to rally Taiwan's flagging independence forces, President Chen Shui-bian's New Year's resolution seems to be provoking mainland China with a push announced this week to buy US arms, including eight submarines and a dozen sub-hunting aircraft.
For five years, as China has created a high-tech attack force designed to overwhelm Taiwan, the island's politicians have batted around a US-approved package of sophisticated military equipment worth between $10 and $19 billion.
Yet little has actually been procured. The arms deal, dreamed of by Taiwanese ...