Bowing to Chinese pressure, the U.S. will deny Taiwan's request for 66 new F-16C/D fighter aircraft, a Taiwan Ministry of National Defense (MND) official said.As we said on August 6th:
"We are so disappointed in the United States," he said....MORE
Stir Fry Medley: Born in the USAAA (Livin' in the USAA+)
Funny thing about being a debtor, other people call the tune.That post continued with a scolding delivered by one of the Chinese-government approved press agencies:
China was more than willing to lend America the money to fight in Iraq, for them the war was about oil:
August 28, 2008 Al Jazeera
China agrees $3bn Iraq oil deal
From Xinhua:
After historic downgrade, U.S. must address its chronic debt problems
BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The days when the debt-ridden Uncle Sam could leisurely squander unlimited overseas borrowing appeared to be numbered as its triple A-credit rating was slashed by Standard & Poor's (S&P) for the first time on Friday.
Though the U.S. Treasury promptly challenged the unprecedented downgrade, many outside the United States believe the credit rating cut is an overdue bill that America has to pay for its own debt addition and the short-sighted political wrangling in Washington.
Dagong Global, a fledgling Chinese rating agency, degraded the U.S. treasury bonds late last year, yet its move was met then with a sense of arrogance and cynicism from some Western commentators. Now S&P has proved what its Chinese counterpart has done is nothing but telling the global investors the ugly truth.
China, the largest creditor of the world's sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States to address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China's dollar assets....The editorial went on to tell the U.S. to quit spending so much on the military.
The F-16 story mentions:
A June report by the Perryman Group, a Texas-based economic and financial analysis firm, estimated that Taiwan’s F-16C/D program would create more than 16,000 jobs and almost $768 million in U.S. federal tax revenue. Much of that tax revenue and new jobs would go to election battleground states: California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Ohio, Texas and Utah....Oh well.
See also:
June 28, 2011
Barron's Cover: China's Military Buildup
January 10, 2011
General Electric Teaming With China to Challenge Boeing, Airbus (GE; BA; UTX)
