John Pomfret looks at a new arms deal for Taiwan:

The Bush administration’s announcement Friday that it plans to sell $6 billion in arms to Taiwan is an interesting one, and a sign that the Bush administration is trying to walk a very, very thin line between supporting Taiwan and enraging China.

For one, the package is considerably smaller than one that was being considered. Taiwan gets Apache helicopters, Patriot anti-missile missiles, Javelin anti-tank missiles and spare parts for its air force, among other goodies. But what it doesn’t get is almost as significant; the original package had included 60 Black Hawk helicopters, eight diesel-electric submarines and four Patriot air defense missile batteries. But no mention is made of them on the website of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency…