Taiwan Goes After Subs as a Game-Changer

TAIPEI - Recurring reports that countries other than the United States are helping Taiwan build diesel-electric submarines domestically go back a decade. According to various articles, it's either the Western Europeans, Russians or Indians who are clandestinely concocting a submarine plan with the Taiwanese. 

While the notion that any country able to build subs would choose to so profoundly snub China appears unlikely, the question arises as to why these rumors persist. 

An island and its mythical being 

Then-United States president George W Bush in 2001 approved the sale of eight conventional submarines to Taiwan, but the deal has been in limbo ever since. While the US ceased building diesel-electric subs decades ago, the Western European countries that do still produce them