Washington, May 09: In a shift in policy, US is urging Taiwan to buy the most advanced American anti-missile system, the patriot advanced capability missile, which costs about $2.7 million each. The US push to sell Taiwan the missile is driven by China's missile buildup across the Taiwan strait. In recent months, says the US, Beijing has been adding ballistic missiles at the rate of about 75 a year to its arsenal aimed at Taiwan, up from a pace of about 50 annually and by 2005, Beijing is expected to have 600 missiles pointed at Taiwan, according to pentagon officials. For years, Taiwan has been asking US to sell its more sophisticated military hardware to defend itself but Washington has been ignoring the request. China's missile arsenal, said Lt Col Mark Stokes, a pentagon expert on Taiwan, "is one of the most daunting conventional missile threats" in the world today. Deputy assistant secretary of defence Richard Lawless said that Taiwan's "first task is to address China's accelerated conventional-missile buildup. We believe it is imperative that Taiwan acquire an integrated air and missile defence capability."

Bureau Report