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December 13, 2001

The US has promised to provide Taiwan with eight modern diesel-electric submarines but is at a loss as to how to do so. The US has not built a diesel submarine in 40 years, and the main European providers refuse to sell submarines to Taiwan (from fear of economic retaliation by China). The US is confident, however, that at least one of the submarine-building nations (Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, or Spain) will agree to provide blueprints to a US shipyard without making the deal public.--Stephen V Cole