“ The U.S. State Department approved the potential sale of 40 155mm M109A6 Medium Self-Propelled Howitzer artillery systems to Taiwan in a deal valued at up to $750 million, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.”
Whoa. Big sale pending. Wish some of this money could help bail out small businesses and citizens. Wonder what this means? Interesting timing.
Getting invaded would be worse.
What do you propose. .Waving a white flag ?
Asking for free arms ?
I mean if protection from China is more of a priority than providing Taiwan witha better stimulus package, bail out for small businesses, and vaccine purchases I guess they know something we don’t. So we’ll trust the government.
Also Taiwan has been saying they can protect themselves from China for a while.
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3992047
I think it is. You appear not to.
CCP occupation concerns me a lot more than any Covid imact.
All I’ve heard for the last year is Taiwan saying they can protect themselves just fine and on the other side of the coin not provide funding to citizens during financial crisis due to lockdown. I dunno what to believe actually.
Possibly both are true. Taiwan can protect itself from the CCP, but can’t fund its citizens due to lockdown. I don’t believe that to be the case, but it could be.
Personally, given the choice between wasting money on trying to beat Covid and spending money on protecting a democracy against the CCP I would go with the latter.
I agree, but I don’t think they’ve been wasting money on COVID. It’s almost like they’ve been wasting citizens money lol. It’s the imposed lockdowns with no financial support that’s hurt the citizens. Supporting the citizens financially during a forced lockdown or restaurant closure wouldn’t necessarily be a waste, but I hear you.
I’m all for protecting Taiwan. I love Taiwan. That’s why I live here. I’m just perplexed by some of the decision making during this COVID fiasco.
They can defend against china because they buy weapons and try to get allies or become friendly with powerful governments.
I agree they have been fucking up the reaction to the CCP Virus, but they have money for weapons and vaccines, so it has nothing to do with weapons purchases. A proper complaint would the constant, non stop, paving roads, cutting them up and repaving in 1 to 5 years. That wasted money alone could pay for covid.
This deal likely started pre-covid.
I buy a bargain game off steam on a whim. Someone else may go off-list at Costco,…, but a 750 mUSD deal is not an impulse purchase.
You got to pay to play.
Taiwan has to get weapons and also has to keep congressmen and women on board in the US. So there aren’t a while lot of options. In the end Taiwan can easily afford it. Self driving howitzers seem damn expensive but I can also see where they would be useful.
As for the mean covid response, I agree. But it’s not because they lack money but they are unwilling to spend money on social programs. The president is from a wealth family former economist and WHO negotiator. The DPP and KMT are both pro big business. There are also a lot of older people in charge who tend to be quite miserly in Taiwan.
You didn’t hear me. I wrote
wasting money on trying to beat Covid
I am also perplexed by some decision making during Covid.
Gotcha. Agree 
Fucking up is probably the last word I’d give it.
It’s not perfect, but I wouldn’t consider it a failure.
We just need to take out their aircraft carriers.
Big business get subsidized, and politicians get their share(s). Hey, you can buy 4000 NT$ by investing 1000 NT$.