[lyonel]

As I understand, his stand on the arms deal is that US should provide them free of charge. His logic is that Taiwan as a watch dog to prevent the erosion of US influence in the Pacific should be rewarded accordingly.
His famous line is "Guard dogs never have to bring its own food." Very funny.

[Zhang Fei]

His logic is that Taiwan as a watch dog to prevent the erosion of US influence in the Pacific should be rewarded accordingly.

That's taking South Korea's logic and going one step further. But the thing with Chinese is that you have to distinguish between what they say for public consumption and what their true agenda is. My view is that Lee Ao doesn't really believe what he says - he's just trying to clear the way for the Chinese conquest of Taiwan. After all, the primary beneficiary of a strong Taiwanese defense capability is Taiwan itself.

For example, a significant beneficiary of the Chinese defense of North Korea during the Korean War was the Soviet Union. And yet the Soviets did not provide free weaponry to the Chinese - the Chinese spent decades paying back those loans. Because the primary beneficiary of Chinese success during the conflict would have been China itself.

Of course, the US has in the past provided free weaponry to the Kuomintang - during WWII and the Chinese Civil War. But that wasn't actually a grant - it was forgiven because the Kuomintang was clearly no longer in charge of a continental-sized nation able to repay the loan.