CHINA HAS restated its opposition to any new US weapons sales to its rival Taiwan, following signs that President Barack Obama’s government was considering fresh arms sales to the self-ruled island.
Reports in the US media said Washington was prepared to meet, partially at least, a Taiwanese weapons request that includes F-16 fighter jets, Patriot missiles and diesel submarines.
“We are firmly opposed to US arms sales to Taiwan,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference.
Continuing a fairly unambiguous statement, she said that not selling weapons to Taiwan would “maintain the sound development of Sino-US relations, as well as cross-strait relations”.
Washington is obliged by legislation to help democratic Taiwan, which has been self-ruled since the end of the 1949 civil war when Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek fled there after the Communist victory on the mainland.
China sees Taiwan as a renegade province and has said on many occasions that it wants to bring it back into the fold, by force if necessary. It says that arms sales to Taiwan are a form of interference in its domestic affairs.
In recent years, the focus has been on achieving more friendly ties by economic means, especially since the election last year of President Ma Ying-jeou, the KMT leader who won on a ticket of bringing the island closer to the mainland.
Despite this conciliatory position, Mr Ma has asked the US for weapons because he says the island needs to protect itself following a sharp rise in military spending in China. The threat of reunification by force has been backed up by an estimated 1,300 Chinese ballistic missiles positioned along the Taiwan Strait.
The United States in 1979 switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
The US Congress responded to the de-recognition of Taiwan by approving the Taiwan Relations Act that requires the US to provide the island with weapons of a defensive nature.
One of the problem issues is that Washington has agreed to sell 66 F-16 C/D fighters as part of a package of arms, which mainland critics say qualify as an offensive weapon.
What is certain is that any sale will irritate relations between Beijing and Washington, a relationship that Mr Obama said during a visit to China last month was increasingly important in global affairs, but which shows precious few signs of warmth at the moment.
Weapon sales were given the go-ahead in the first term of former president George W Bush.
The last time the US offered weapons to Taiwan, China responded by stopping the USS Kitty Hawk and some other vessels from entering Hong Kong harbour.