International Law

Bad Timing For This Non-Story

By Stan

The story of the U.S. missile parts mistakenly sent to Taiwan has been floating around the Internets because of its headline appeal. The facts are, as usual, less than exciting. From the CNN story:

Four nose-cone fuses for intercontinental ballistic missiles were shipped instead of the helicopter batteries that Taiwan had requested, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said.

The fuses were shipped to Taiwan in fall 2006 and kept in a warehouse there. The Taiwanese military informed the United States last week about their presence on the island.

So this stuff was sent by accident, sat in a warehouse for a while, and will now presumably be sent back from whence they came.

But we can’t dismiss this for what it is (an empty story) because things are tense these days. Someone in Beijing right now is looking into this and wondering if this accident explanation is true or if something more sinister is going on. Somewhere in Washington, D.C., an official at the Pentagon is being yelled at for making bilateral relations even worse.

Really bad timing.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on March 26, 2008 (boomark / email).