US approves licence for Taiwan submarine plan

[Swordsmyth]

Washington has agreed to allow US defence contractors help Taiwan construct its own submarines, Taipei said, welcoming the breakthrough in long-standing ambitions to build up its fleet to counter the threat from China.
Taiwan last year launched a plan to manufacture its own submarines amid deteriorating relations with China after its hopes of buying them from the US came to nothing.
The US State Department has approved granting the licence necessary to sell Taiwan the technology needed for its submarine project.
The approval was a "breakthrough," Taiwan defence ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi said Sunday.
"It is part of a process. We'll take it step by step," he told AFP, declining to provide further details.

More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-approves-licence-taiwan-submarine-plan-053703486--finance.html

[XNavyNuke]

Not surprising. The Taiwanese tried to get this through the previous Administration. The Glorious Leader told them to go pound sand. It was expected that they would bring it up again with PDT. What is surprising is the patience that they showed. Their Guppy-class subs are essentially worthless and their Zwaardvis-class subs are seriously outmatched.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-05-12/taiwan-president-ma-seeks-f-16-jets-submarines-from-u-s-as-leverage-

Circa 2011

XNN

[Swordsmyth]

China said on Monday that it opposed the United States selling weapons to Taiwan, after the Trump administration approved the marketing license required for American manufacturers to sell technology to Taiwan that would allow for building submarines. Taiwan’s Central News Agency said on Saturday that Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence confirmed the U.S. Department of State had agreed to grant the license needed to sell the technology to Taiwan so the self-ruled island could build its own submarines.
China’s Defence Ministry, responding to a journalist’s question in an online statement about the issue, demanded that the United States “halt all forms of military links between the United States and Taiwan, as well as all forms of weapon sales to Taiwan”.

More at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-usa-submarines/china-demands-halt-of-u-s-arms-sales-to-taiwan-idUSKBN1HG1QJ