by KYLE MIZOKAMI

Locked in an an undersea arms race with China, Taiwan has decided to build its first domestically-produced attack submarines. For two reasons.

The first is that Taiwan’s ancient submarines, half of which are 70 years old, are a better fit for a museum than defending the island nation from a Chinese invasion.

Secondly, Taiwan has never built submarines before, and it would rather buy them abroad. But the country has spent decades fruitlessly searching for someone — anyone — willing to sell it submarines. No country wants to cross China and its potent economic leverage.

Now, Taiwan is admitting defeat and gearing up to build its own.

Taiwan, which split off from China in 1949, has lived under the threat of invasion ever since. For decades, the country’s naval forces provided the bulwark against forced reunification. As long as Taiwan maintained naval superiority, China could never risk an amphibious attack.

Submarines are an ideal defense for island countries. Once put to sea, they could be … anywhere. That greatly increases an invaders’ anxiety. Subs could hold back, reporting the positions of enemy ships.

Alternatively, they could close in and start sinking the invasion force.

A single troop ship sent to the bottom of the Taiwan Strait could take thousands of Chinese soldiers out of the fight, a nightmare for the rulers of a country with a one-child policy.

Two thousand Chinese marines lost at sea will leave behind 4,000 childless parents demanding answers from the Communist Party. China knows this, and Beijing applies diplomatic pressure to countries that build submarines to ensure they don’t sell to Taiwan.

Western politicians ignored the pressure in the past. But China is now the world’s second largest economy, and the repercussions of offending Beijing are impossible to ignore.