Should we sell arms to Taiwan?

NPR-China has abruptly canceled a series of military and diplomatic contacts with the United States to protest a planned $6.5 billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, a Defense Department spokesman said Monday.

Chinese officials notified the U.S. Monday that they would not carry through with the high level visits and humanitarian assistance exchanges that were to take place in October and November because of the arms sale.

China condemned the announcement of the arms sales, and called for them to be cancelled. The Defense Department said the weapons are necessary for Taiwan to “maintain a sufficient self defense.”

The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced Friday that it had notified the U.S. Congress of plans to sell up to $6.5 billion in advanced weaponry to Taiwan. Under procedures for such foreign military sales, the deal would proceed if no lawmaker voices an objection within 30 days of the notification.

Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and has threatened to invade should the self-governing island ever formalize its de facto independence.

Posted by JohnKonop on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 2:13 am | under China | |RSS 2.0 feed | Comments and pings closed. |