Edmund Blair Leighton paintings

Edmund Blair Leighton paintings
Eugene de Blaas paintings
The president believes very strongly that the best way to promote peace and stability is to make certain that Taiwan has the means necessary to secure its defense needs," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, explaining the decision. "And this decision was made on the president's determination on how best to secure the peace and to provide Taiwan with the means necessary to defend itself."The sale will not be everything Taiwan wants, but it will amount to the largest arms sale to the nation in nearly a decade — a fact that has angered mainland China. Chinese Ambassador Yang Jiechi this morning delivered a formal protest of the decision to U.S. Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, said Reeker, the State Department spokesman.Relations with China have suffered a major setback in recent weeks, with Beijing's 11-day detention of the crew of a U.S. surveillance plane that made an emergency landing on China's Hainan Island after a collision with a Chinese fighter jet. The pilot of the Chinese aircraft was lost.