The Chinese people “have every right to be outraged” by the new $1.4 billion US arms deal with Taiwan, Beijing has said, arguing that the sale means the Trump administration is contradicting earlier statements on maintaining peace in the region.
Washington has made the “wrong decision to sell arms to Taiwan in disregard of China’s strong representations, ” reads a statement released on Friday by the Chinese embassy in the US.
On top of violating several joint communiques, the deal “grossly interferes [in] China’s domestic affairs, jeopardizes China’s sovereign and security interest and undermines China’s efforts to realize national unification, ” the embassy says. “The Chinese government and Chinese people have every right to be outraged, ” it adds.
The weapons sale, announced by Washington on Thursday, requires congressional approval, and comes two years after President Barack Obama announced a $1.83 billion arms sale to Taiwan.
The current arms deal includes maintenance support for early-warning radar, high-speed anti-radiation missiles, torpedoes and missile components. Previous US arms packages also included two navy frigates as well as anti-tank missiles and amphibious attack vehicles.
“The wrong move” undertaken by the Trump administration came into conflict with “the consensus reached by the two presidents in Mar-a-Lago and the positive development momentum of the China-US relationship, ” the embassy asserted, urging the US to reverse the deal.
