BEIJING: China strongly condemns and firmly opposes the United States’ newly approved arms sale to Taiwan, a defense spokesman said on Thursday.
Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks during a news conference in Beijing, noting that China has lodged solemn representations to the US.
The US Department of Defense recently approved arms sales worth nearly $2 billion for Taiwan, including a surface-to-air missile system and a radar system.
Zhang said the arms sales severely violated the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques. “This move seriously undermined China’s sovereignty and security interests, seriously disrupted China-US relations, undermined peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and sent very wrong signals to the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces,” he said.
The US has reneged on its own promise and is intensifying efforts to arm Taiwan, emboldening the “Taiwan independence” separatist forces and pushing Taiwan closer toward the “abyss of military conflict”, the spokesman said.
He said Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party authorities purchased weapons to solicit US support, allowing the US to exploit the hard-earned money of the people in Taiwan to feed its military-industrial complex.
“Records have proved time and again that the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists and foreign interference are the source of chaos that undermine the status quo, cause cross-Strait crises and disrupt regional stability,” Zhang stressed. The official reiterated China’s stance regarding the Taiwan question, which he said is at the very core of China’s interests and is the first red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
