Congress ultimately forced the Navy to buy the four Kidd destroyers, soaking up funds service leaders had hoped to spend on other ships. Now mothballed, the Kidd destroyers remained in the fleet for less than 20 years and are part of the arms deal the administration is offering Taiwan. No Moray sub has ever been built. Like other foreign arms sales, any submarine deal with Taiwan would require congressional approval. The proposed sales were denounced Tuesday by China, which dispatched its ambassador to the State Department to lodge a formal protest.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province.
Its unhappiness with continued U.S. support for the island government is the biggest irritant in U.S.-China relations. The Bush arms offer is the largest such U.S. proposal to Taiwan in years. It comes in the wake of China's detention for 11 days this month of 24 Americans who made an emergency landing on Hainan Island after their EP-3E reconnaissance aircraft collided with a Chinese fighter jet. The EP-3E remains in China, its fate uncertain. In an interview Tuesday with The Washington Post, President Bush insisted the proposed sale has no connection to the EP-3E incident.