World IN BRIEF / CHINA : Beijing Plans to Buy 2 Subs, Reports Say

Amid lingering tensions across the Taiwan Strait, China is planning to buy two Russian submarines capable of firing long-range missiles that could hit the mainland United States, two Hong Kong newspapers reported. Beijing has reached a tentative agreement with Moscow on the purchase of the Typhoon-class nuclear-powered submarines--a move apparently aimed at deterring U.S. involvement in relations between China and Taiwan, the Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily reported. The $1-billion deal was endorsed by Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin during a five-nation summit in the Central Asian state of Kyrgyzstan last week, reported the Hong Kong Standard, Sing Tao’s English-language sister paper.