But the package Bush did approve seemed to satisfy many in Congress who had pressed for Aegis approval. The fact that the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers wouldn't be ready for at least eight years removed some of the sense of urgency in Congress, analysts said. And doubts at the Pentagon about whether Taiwan's navy is sophisticated enough to deploy the system made Bush's decision more palatable on Capitol Hill. You are going to have five or six people who are livid, but the bottom line is that if George Bush's biggest problem is that he can't rein in five or six far-right conservatives, that's not much to worry about. The recent air collision between a U.S. spy plane and Chinese fighter jet and Beijing's detention of 24 Americans added to pressure on Bush to take a hard line.
China has a few aging destroyers and no submarines.
The arms package would be the most robust for Taiwan since Bush's father approved the sale of 150 F-16 jet fighters in 1992. Some Republicans raised concerns about whether Taiwan would ever obtain the diesel submarines approved in Bush's package. No U.S. shipyard has built a diesel sub in decades, and the plan is to buy submarine hulls overseas and have a U.S. contractor outfit them for Taipei. Read the SunSpot.net User Agreement for our policies on copyright, reader privacy and bulletin boards. Powered by Genuity.