China believes the US decision to sell Taiwan submarines crosses a strategic red line and will take swift and concrete actions in retaliation, a leading Chinese academic predicted today.
|
"I think there will be some substantive actions and this will come very soon," said Wu Xinbo, a professor at the Fudan University Centre for American Studies in Shanghai.
"I cannot identify the specific areas at this moment, but those actions will make the US acutely aware of the cost of its behaviour on this issue and remind the US about the relative gain or loss from its Taiwan policy," Mr Wu said.
"There will be some things that are substantial, not just symbolic," he said.
China has yet to respond officially to the arms sales package, which it had lobbied to halt. A senior congressional aide said Washington would sell Taiwan four Kidd Class destroyers, eight submarines and 12 P-3 anti-submarine aircraft.
President George W. Bush had turned down a request from Taiwan, at least for now, to buy the Aegis system, the aide said.
China-US ties are already strained by a tense showdown over the April 1 collision between a US EP-3 spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet and by former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui's impending visit to the United States.