Chinese state media today condemned the United States for a planned $6.4 billion arms package for Taiwan, while a US official said Washington was committed to helping the island defend itself.
The arms sales, the latest in a series but the first by the Obama administration, has added to a litany of bilateral strains between the world's biggest and third-biggest economies, including the value of China's currency, trade protectionism, Internet freedoms and Tibet.
The official China Daily said US weapons sales to the self-ruled island, which China claims as its own, "inevitably cast a long shadow on Sino-US relations".
"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 English-language newspaper said in an editorial.
The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, recognising "one China", and says it wants the two sides to settle their differences peacefully. The United States remains Taiwan's biggest backer and is obliged by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to help in the island's defence.
US assistant secretary of defence for the Asia-Pacific Wallace Gregson said Washington aimed to maintain cooperative, cordial relations with China but would not abandon Taiwan.
Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province that must accept eventual unification, by force if necessary.
US officials have said Taiwan, which lags China in the balance of military power, needs updated weapons to give it more sway with Beijing, which Taiwan says has more than 1,400 short- and mid-range missiles aimed at the island.
China also said the dispute will damage cooperation with the US over international issues. Washington has sought stronger Chinese support over several international hotspots, chiefly the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.
Beijing could show its anger by delaying or downgrading negotiations on Iran, but is unlikely to abandon its long-established stance of nudging Tehran to cooperate while resisting heavy sanctions on the big oil supplier.
Reuters