Three European governments failed to back a US pledge to supply Taiwan with submarines after Washington agreed to sell the country the arms needed to defend itself against China.
Washington has said it will provide Taiwan with diesel-powered submarines, destroyers, submarine-hunting planes and other advanced weapons to bolster its defenses against a rising military threat from China.
But the US no longer manufacturers the diesel-powered subs, and one possibility is to make an arrangement through a third country that does. Among the more prominent manufacturers are Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.
In Taiwan, Mei Fu-sing (
But those two countries came back with negative responses, and Sweden said it, too, would not fill the order. Germany made clear Wednesday it would not allow the submarines to be built under a German license.
A Swedish government agency that approves arms exports said Stockholm does not sell weapons to either China or Taiwan, in keeping with its policy not to get involved in military conflicts.
Dutch Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday that the Netherlands would refuse to supply any military equipment to Taiwan because of a 1984 Dutch agreement with Beijing.
Even with a specific US request for the equipment, the Dutch would uphold a ban on arms exports to conflict areas, said spokeswoman Hannah Tijmes.
Before the 1984 agreement with China, the Dutch had shipped two "Swordfish" class submarines to Taiwan. That sale, which boosted Taiwan's ocean defenses substantially, led to a break in diplomatic ties with Beijing.
US-Chinese relations became further strained this week when US President George W. Bush said Washington would do "whatever it took" to help Taiwan defend itself from a potential Chinese invasion.
In response, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said "the Chinese government and people are strongly indignant and opposed" to Bush's comments.
"There is only one China in the world. Taiwan is part of China. It is not a protectorate of any foreign country," said spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue (
In Germany, a government spokesman, Uwe-Karsten Heye, said Berlin's "one China" policy prohibited it from granting permission for Taiwan to buy or manufacture the diesel-powered submarines.
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