China has warned that a U.S. decision to sell
weapons to Taiwan will harm Washington's relations with Beijing. Daniel Schearf
reports from Beijing.
China's Foreign Ministry condemned U.S.
plans to sell a package of military weapons to Taiwan, the self-ruled island
that Beijing claims as its own.
The Pentagon last week approved a
multibillion-dollar sale of missiles, helicopters, and other military equipment
to Taipei.
U.S. and Taiwan legislators have yet to approve the deal, but
Chinese officials were quick to condemn it.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang says the move
threatens China's security and will gravely undermine U.S.-China relations. He
warns there will be consequences.
He says the U.S. action has created
obstacles for not only military exchanges, but every field of U.S.-China
cooperation.
The Pentagon says China has already canceled or postponed
some scheduled military and diplomatic exchanges.
China has hundreds of
missiles aimed at Taiwan and has vowed to one day reunite the island with the
mainland, by force if necessary. The two split politically when Communist forces
won China's civil war in 1949 and nationalist forces fled to Taiwan.
Under U.S. law, the government is allowed to sell military weapons to
Taiwan. The Pentagon says the planned deal complies with that law.
Qin
accuses the United States of upsetting peace in the region.
He says
China's development is peaceful and does not pose a threat to any other
countries. He says it is the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan that disturbs the
peaceful development of cross-straits relations and undermines peace and
stability across the strait.