August 23, 2007: U.S. Navy officials have told the
Taiwanese government that European firms have been found who will collaborate
with the U.S. to build eight diesel-electric submarines for Taiwan. No European
country was willing to build subs directly with Taiwan, for fear of offending
China. But China is vulnerable right now, with the Olympics coming up next year
in Beijing, and much international tumult because of bad manufacturing
practices for Chinese exports. The U.S. stopped building diesel-electric subs
half a century ago, but American and Europeans sub builders know each other,
and a sale is a sale, no matter how many middlemen it has to go through.
