BEIJING - China criticised on Tuesday a U.S. decision to sell a fresh package of weapons to Taiwan, saying the arms deliveries emboldened the island's independence movement and damaged China-U.S relations.
"The Chinese government and people have consistently firmly opposed sales by the United States of any advanced weapons to Taiwan," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi.
"Supplying weapons inflates the arrogance of Taiwan independence forces, destroys cross-Strait relations and creates further tensions," Sun told a news conference.
The United States agreed on Monday to the sale of some military equipment to Taiwan but deferred a decision to sell four sophisticated destroyers to the island Beijing regards as a renegade province.
Top U.S. officials met on Monday and agreed with President Bill Clinton to approve a package including additional hardware, missiles, improved radar and training assistance to help the Taiwanese military best utilise its resources.
But they held off on the sale to Taiwan of several major elements of a military weapons package, officials said, among them a naval package that included four destroyers equipped with the Aegis battle system, P-3 Orion naval observation planes used mainly for anti-submarine warfare, and diesel submarines.
The U.S. administration postponed a decision on elements like the Aegis-equipped destroyers, which have a radar and computer array capable of tracking more than 100 targets on land, air and sea simultaneously, pending completion of a comprehensive study of Taiwan's naval defence needs.
Asked about the decision to postpone the Aegis-equipped destroyers, Sun reiterated China's opposition to all advanced weapons sales and called on Washington to honour its commitments to phase out weapons sales to Taiwan.
The United States, while supplying military hardware to Taiwan for its defence, recognises only Beijing as the legitimate government of China.
A recent Pentagon assessment concluded that Taiwan's military capability has been weakened by its diplomatic isolation and other factors.