Official admits China's procurement deals aim to promote unification

22 Oct 2010

Source  Reuters
China has sent 62 procurement missions to Taiwan since May 2008, signing letters of intent to purchase US$16.2 billion worth of locally made products, Taiwan's intelligence chief said Wednesday. This year alone, 14 Chinese procurement missions have visited Taiwan, National Security Bureau Director Tsai Teh-sheng said at a closed-door session of the Legislative Yuan's Foreign and Defense Committee. Many of those deals have not yet been substantiated, however, and some of them would require a long period of time to complete delivery, Tsai said.

Asked by opposition Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Hung-liang on whether China's procurement contracts were part of its efforts to woo Taiwanese people and build up interpersonal connections and social networks in Taiwan to promote its ultimate goal of unification, Tsai Teh-sheng responded: "It probably is."
Chinese procurement missions inevitably carry primary and secondary missions, the intelligence chief added. The NSB director refrained, however, from making a direct response to Tsai Hung-liang's question about whether China’s dispatch of purchase missions was mainly for unification promotion.

Source Focus Taiwan
http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aIPL&ID=201010200042
Pentagon says military cuts won't sideline Britain
The U.S. Defense Department supported what it called Britain's ability to go on playing a top role in global security despite newly announced plans to cut its army, navy and air force to cap a record budget deficit.

"We are confident that the U.K. will continue to have the capacity to provide top-tier fighting forces in Afghanistan and other future missions in defense of our shared interests and security," Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement on Wednesday, a day after British Prime Minister David Cameron unveiled sweeping cutbacks.
Britain's armed forces review, the first since 1998, calls for a military with fewer people, fewer ships, fewer aircraft, fewer nuclear warheads and a smaller budget.

The Ministry of Defense's budget of 36.9 billion pounds will be cut by 8 percent in real terms over the next four years, far lower than the average of 25 percent cuts faced by other British government departments.

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