China has warned that a U.S. decision to sell weapons to Taiwan will
harm Washington's relations with Beijing. Daniel Schearf reports from
Beijing.
China's Foreign Ministry condemned U.S.
plans to sell a package of military weapons to Taiwan, the self-ruled
island that Beijing claims as its own.
The Pentagon last week approved a multibillion-dollar sale of missiles, helicopters, and other military equipment to Taipei.
U.S. and Taiwan legislators have yet to approve the deal, but Chinese officials were quick to condemn it.
Foreign
Ministry spokesman Qin Gang says the move threatens China's security
and will gravely undermine U.S.-China relations. He warns there will
be consequences.
He says the U.S. action has created obstacles for not only military exchanges, but every field of U.S.-China cooperation.
The Pentagon says China has already canceled or postponed some scheduled military and diplomatic exchanges.
China
has hundreds of missiles aimed at Taiwan and has vowed to one day
reunite the island with the mainland, by force if necessary. The two
split politically when Communist forces won China's civil war in 1949
and nationalist forces fled to Taiwan.
Under U.S. law, the government is allowed to sell military weapons to Taiwan. The Pentagon says the planned deal complies with that law.
Qin accuses the United States of upsetting peace in the region.
He
says China's development is peaceful and does not pose a threat to any
other countries. He says it is the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan that
disturbs the peaceful development of cross-straits relations and
undermines peace and stability across the strait.
