A planned American arms sale to Taiwan may damage US-Chinese relations and disrupt efforts to achieve unity on nuclear stand-offs with Iran and North Korea, official sources in Beijing indicated yesterday.
The warnings came as Yang Jiechi, the Foreign Minister, yesterday became the most senior Beijing official to denounce the $6.4 billion (£4 billion) package that Washington says is part of its commitment to protect the island.
Mr Yang said that Washington had ignored Beijing’s demands to halt the sales despite many rounds of discussions. He said that the US should “truly respect China’s core interests and major concerns, and immediately rescind the mistaken decision to sell arms to Taiwan, and stop selling arms to Taiwan to avoid damaging broader China-US relations”.
Official news outlets