BEIJING HAS reacted with fury to Washington’s decision to approve the sale of weapons to self-ruled Taiwan, which the Chinese consider a rogue province, and has promised sanctions against US firms that arm the Taiwanese.
It is the latest sign of bad blood between the established superpower and the rising superpower that is China.
Relations have been strained over Google and cyber attacks, internet censorship, trade disputes involving the value of the renminbi currency and US president Barack Obama’s expected meeting with the Dalai Lama.
“The arms sale is gross interference in China’s internal affairs. It seriously undermines China’s national security and national reunification, and thus inevitably casts a long shadow on Sino-US relations,” said the China Daily in an editorial.
China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalists (KMT) fled to the island. China has vowed to reunite mainland China with Taiwan, with force if necessary, while the US has said it will protect Taiwan.
“China’s response, no matter how vehement, is justified. No country worthy of respect can sit idle while its national security is endangered and core interests damaged,” the newspaper said.
Webizens have responded angrily online, calling for boycotts of US goods.
Taiwan’s shopping list includes 60 Black Hawk helicopters, 114 Patriot missile systems, 12 advanced Harpoon missiles and two Osprey mine-hunting ships.
The Chinese foreign ministry said it would impose sanctions on US firms involved in the deal. Among the firms involved are Boeing, including its Raytheon unit, United Technologies and Lockheed Martin.
Crucially, the US has not decided to sell to Taiwan the Fighting Falcon F-16 fighter jets, which it has been seeking for several years, but the sale of which would have caused an uproar in Beijing.
The current Taiwanese air fleet is ageing. It had secured funding in 2007 for as many as 66 F-16s.
The Chinese foreign ministry called in US ambassador Jon Huntsman over the sale. The defence ministry has suspended military contacts with Washington and said it would “closely follow the situation and make an appropriate response”.
China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and is increasingly important to global diplomacy as its economic muscle increases.
It is unlikely to take actions that will substantially harm bilateral ties, although it will make its displeasure felt.
The foreign ministry has already cancelled one meeting between senior Chinese and US officials – a vice-ministerial-level meeting on strategic security, arms control and nuclear non-proliferation – and the Chinese are unlikely to stop there.
A dialogue on human rights that Mr Obama and Chinese president Hu Jintao agreed during their summit in November now looks in jeopardy.
“The US selling weapons to Taiwan probably won’t stop in the near future regardless of who sits in the White House,” said the Global Times in an editorial.
“It’s time the US was made to feel the heat for the continuing arms sales to Taiwan.”
