NEW, DELHI/TAIPEI ¨C The U.S. may finally sell Taiwan the warplanes it has sought for more than a decade to defend against China. Their arrival would deal more of a political shock than a military blow to Beijing.
Trump administration officials have given tacit approval to Taipei¡¯s request to buy more than 60 Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16s, according to people familiar with the matter, setting the stage for the first such deal since 1992. While a few dozen fighter jets would hardly tip the military balance against the increasing powerful Chinese military, it would signal a new American willingness to back the democratically run island.
¡°For Beijing, it would be a huge shock,¡± said Wu Shang-su, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. ¡°But it would be more of a political shock than a military shock. It would be, ¡®Oh, the U.S. doesn¡¯t care how we feel.¡¯ It would be more of a symbolic or emotional issue.¡±
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