Beijing, Dec 18: China on Thursday sharply criticised the US for its plan to sell massive advanced weapons worth USD 11.1 billion to Taiwan, saying Washington’s move “grossly violates” the one-China principle and infringes on its sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.
US President Donald Trump has approved the arms package for Taiwan, which, if cleared by the US Congress, would mark Washington’s largest-ever arms sale to the island. The development comes amid Taipei’s concerns over a potential invasion
by China, which claims the self-governing island as part of its mainland.
Much on the expected lines, China sharply criticised the US, saying Washington “blatantly announced its plan to sell massive advanced weapons to China’s Taiwan region” and sends a “gravely wrong signal to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces”.
“China firmly opposes and strongly condemns it,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a media briefing here, reacting to Trump’s approval of the arms sale.
“This move grossly violates the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués, infringes on China’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, undermines peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
The arms sale aids Taiwan’s independence forces’ plans to turn the island into a “powder keg”, Guo said.
“China will take resolute and strong measures to defend its national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” he said.
If approved by Congress, as is likely given Taiwan’s strong bipartisan support, the package would exceed the USD 8.4 billion in arms sold to Taiwan during the Biden administration, a New York Times report said.
And it would be equivalent to more than half the USD 18.3 billion in arms sold to Taiwan during President Trump’s first term in office.
The arms sales cleared by the US State Department include more than USD four billion each for high mobility artillery rocket systems, known as HIMARS, and M109A7 self-propelled howitzers, USD 700 million worth of Javelin and TOW anti-armour missiles, as well as Altius kamikaze drones made by the military technology company Anduril.
In a statement on its website, the Pentagon’s Defence Security Cooperation Agency said the proposed sale would serve US interests by supporting Taiwan’s “continuing efforts to modernise its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability.”
Taiwan’s defence ministry said the weapons package would provide “strong deterrence and deterrence combat capabilities” and “asymmetric combat advantages.”
The arms sales to Taiwan comes in the backdrop of rising China-Japan tensions over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks in parliament on November 7 that a Taiwan contingency could be a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan that may lead to action from the country’s defence forces in support of the US.
Her remarks angered China, which demanded Takaichi retract her statement.
On Thursday, Guo criticised Japan’s move to develop the easternmost island of Okinawa for the deployment of a mobile surveillance radar unit to monitor Chinese aircraft carriers and planes.
The Japanese side kept strengthening targeted military deployment near the Taiwan region and even claimed it would deploy mid-range missiles, he said.
“This time, it went even further by deploying a radar unit and troops to secretly monitor its neighbour,” Guo said.
“Given the erroneous and dangerous remarks made by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Taiwan, we must question: Is the Japanese side making trouble and provocations at one’s doorstep to find a pretext for its military build-up and missions overseas?” he asked. (PTI)
