China strongly deplores and firmly opposes US arms sales to China's Taiwan region and has lodged serious protests to the US side, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Sunday.
On November 30, the US Department of Defense announced that the Department of State has approved 385 million US dollars worth of arms sales to Taiwan.
The US arms sales to China's Taiwan region seriously violate the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, especially the August 17 Communique of 1982 and China's sovereignty and security interests, said the foreign ministry spokesperson in response to the move of the US side.
The sales are a severe breach of the international law, send a gravely wrong signal to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces, and are detrimental to China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, said the spokesperson, adding that the decision to sell arms to Taiwan is simply inconsistent with US leaders' commitment of not supporting "Taiwan independence."
"China deplores and firmly opposes it and has lodged serious protests to the United States," said the spokesperson.
"We call on the US to immediately stop arming Taiwan and stop abetting and supporting 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces in seeking 'Taiwan independence' by building up its military," the spokesperson said, noting that China will take strong and resolute countermeasures to firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.
Source: Xinhua
