General Dynamics, owner of Bath Iron Works where the destroyers would be built, hired Cassidy and Associates, whose key player is former Reagan defense official Carl Ford, to lobby for the sale. On the public relations front, jobs were made a major issue. The Aegis Industrial Alliance says that the destroyer contract represents work for 1,938 companies in 49 states that have stakes - including major weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon. But a glance at weapons sales to both countries paints a different picture. Overall, Taiwan ranked as the second biggest purchaser of weapons in the last decade, after Saudi Arabia.
China is, for the most part, reliant on a Soviet era military outfitted with rusting equipment.
The crisis, framed as President Bush's first major foreign policy issue, has sweeping consequences for the future of U.S.-Chinese relations. Issuing a formal apology, decreasing the number of spy missions in Chinese territory, and reconsidering weapons sales to Taiwan, would be prudent and presidential steps towards better relations. In a meeting with Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Qian Qichen last month, Bush announced he would travel to China in the Fall. If he handles the crisis well, he might end up not just older but wiser as a result. Frida Berrigan is a Research Associate at the World Policy Institute's Arms Trade Policy Center .