Dumbya kisses ass with Communists!!

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Bush defers Taiwan's request for high-tech destroyers

April 23, 2001 Web posted at: 7:57 p.m. EDT (2357 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Monday decided not to sell the high-tech U.S. destroyers -- equipped with Aegis missile defense systems -- to Taiwan, sources said.

Bush did approve the sale of four Kidd-class destroyers, an older class than the ones Taiwan sought, sources said. The four ships were built in the 1970s after being ordered by the shah of Iran. Those ships will be updated with a more modern radar system.

Taiwan will also get a dozen of the P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft known as sub hunters. And the Bush administration has agreed to help Taiwan purchase diesel-powered submarines. Because the United States no longer makes that type of sub, it will have to find a friendly third nation to provide them.

Sources said the sale, signed off on by the Pentagon and State Department, goes slightly beyond what a Pentagon military analysis determined Taiwan needs to maintain its ability to thwart possible invasion from the Chinese mainland.

Bush administration officials are assuring conservative members of Congress, who wanted a more muscular arms package to Taiwan, that the president is open to a sale of the high-tech weapons in a year or two -- if China continues to build up short and intermediate range missiles.

Pentagon officials were against the sale of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers because they believe Taiwan's military is not up to speed and because it would take eight or 10 years to build, develop and sell the Aegis missile systems. For that reason they decided not to anger Beijing by selling the systems to Taiwan, officials said.

The decision-making process on the requested sale of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers -- stocked with Aegis -- put the White House in an awkward and sensitive position because of the current strained relations with Beijing following the collision of a U.S. reconnaissance plane and a Chinese fighter jet.

China is still in possession of the U.S. Navy EP-3 surveillance aircraft that collided with a Chinese F-8 jet fighter off Hainan Island at the beginning of this month. The Chinese jet broke up and the pilot is presumed dead.

The 24-person crew of the EP-3 was held on the Chinese island for 11 days. Difficult negotiations brought about the release of the crew. The return of the aircraft is still under discussion. Each side blames the other for triggering the mishap.

China exploded with anger over the EP-3 incident and warned the United States to cease surveillance flights off its coasts. The United States said the flights will resume within days.

Tensions between the two nations have risen since the midair collision, aggravated by several other issues, including Chinese detention of several American citizens of Chinese descent, all of them scholars, and the granting of a tourist visa by the United States to the former president of Taiwan so he could visit Cornell University, his alma mater.

Taiwan has always presented one of the most troublesome obstacles to better relations between the United States and China, even during the best of times, when China and the United States worked in concert to keep the Soviet Union in check, and during the "strategic partnership" days of the Clinton administration.

China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and has since the 1949 Communist takeover, when the Nationalist government under Chiang Kai-shek, a U.S. ally in World War II, fled the mainland to the island and set up shop.

Beijing is clear that it intends to bring Taiwan back into the fold, and although reunification talks have sometimes been cordial, China has often flexed its muscles at key times -- conducting naval exercises in the Taiwan Straits, for example, prior to democratic elections on the island.

The United States maintains strong ties with Taiwan despite Beijing's protests, and Taiwan annually presents the Pentagon with its wish list of armaments it wishes to purchase.

This year's list was topped by the four Arleigh Burke destroyers, at a cost of $1 billion each.

Taiwan also requested a package of diesel-electric drive submarines, Patriot anti-missile missiles, and aircraft designed to detect and hunt submarines.

Sources say the Pentagon is recommending against selling the latest version of the Patriot anti-missile system (PAC-3 version), but would support Taiwan's desire to acquire diesel submarines.

The United States does not currently make diesel submarines, but several NATO allies do, including Germany, and Pentagon officials said the United States might be able to help Taiwan obtain submarines from a friendly third country.

Observers had predicted Bush would offer Taiwan the less sophisticated destroyers and would warn the mainland about its sometimes belligerent attitude toward the island.

Rumsfeld visited the White House last week for a meeting with Bush's national security team, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Hugh Shelton.

China has opposed the sale in part because of fear it would give Taiwan a rudimentary defense against the 300 or so short-range missiles China has deployed within striking distance of the island.

A Chinese official in Washington last week predicted a "devastating impact" on U.S.-China relations if Washington decided to sell any advanced weapons to Taiwan, according to the Reuters news service.

Chinese Embassy spokesman Zhang Yuanyuan said the warning applied to any weapons the United States chooses to sell.

-- impeach the traitor now! (NWO Fascist regime @ destroying our. Democracy), April 23, 2001

Answers

Yeh, let's get a real commie ass-kicker like algore in there!!! ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), April 24, 2001.

GORE/CLINTON FINANCED BY COMMUNIST's

State admits details of Gore/Chernomyrdin (illegal/TRAITOROUS) deals kept Secret

-- Barbara Streisand (Memories of the way we@were.com), April 24, 2001.


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