A vote in the US Congress to increase military aid to Taiwan has increased tensions in the volatile Taiwan Straits ahead of March elections in Taiwan, and put at risk a trade agreement which would admit China to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
China's Foreign Ministry summoned the US Ambassador, Mr Joseph Prueher, yesterday to express directly Beijing's anger at the passing of an Act by the House of Representatives which provides for direct military communications between Washington and Taipei, and directs the US military to expand its training of Taiwan officers.
The Vice Foreign Minister, Mr Yang Jiechi, expressed to Mr Prueher the "utmost indignation at and firm opposition to" the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act.
He called it "a serious encroachment on China's sovereignty and a gross interference in China's internal affairs," and demanded that the Clinton administration kill the legislation immediately.
Beijing is furious at a move towards more formal military ties which it believes symbolises a departure from Washington's "one China" policy, which concedes that Taiwan is part of China but under which it supplies the island territory with only defensive weaponry.
The Bill is a watered-down version of an original proposal to authorise the sale to Taiwan of missile defences, air-to-air missiles and submarines.
Mr Yang also demanded that Washington promptly curtail sales of advanced weapons to Taiwan, which Beijing regards as Chinese territory which should reunite peacefully with the mainland.
The US has provided Taiwan with military assistance for two decades under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.
President Clinton is likely to veto the new Act if passed by the US Senate on the grounds that it goes well beyond the 1979 Bill which allows the US to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons.
The White House warned it could "create dangerous, false and inaccurate expectations on both sides of the Taiwan Straits." The US Congress vote comes at a sensitive time in China-Taiwan relations.
A presidential election is to be held in Taiwan in March. The last time Taiwan voted for a president in 1986 China fired missiles toward Taiwan and the US sent two aircraft carrier battle groups to the Taiwan Straits. Last year China appeared to be on the brink of military action after Taiwan's President, Mr Lee Teng-hui, described cross-strait relations as "state-to-state".
Amid recent reports of a build-up of Chinese military strength on the coast opposite Taiwan, China has warned that it will invade if the victorious presidential candidate declares independence.
Taiwan yesterday welcomed the Congress vote, with the foreign ministry expressing appreciation for Congress's concern for Taiwan's security.
Reuter adds: Chinese state media yesterday showed a 10-year-old boy Beijing recognises as Tibet's second highest religious leader pledging loyalty to China, a month after another top Tibetan lama escaped to India.
State television showed Gyaincain Norbu, appointed by Beijing as the 11th Panchen Lama, addressing Chinese officials in halting Mandarin at a meeting to celebrate his birthday and Tibetan Lunar New Year in Beijing.
"In Tibet and the interior, we feel very profoundly the warmth of the great family of the motherland and the Party's policy of freedom of religious belief," the official Xinhua news agency quoted the boy as saying.
Norbu said he wanted to be "a patriotic and devout living Buddha who protects the state and benefits the people, and to wish China good luck with its economic development, social progress, ethnic unity and popular prosperity."
Beijing recognised Norbu as the Panchen Lama in 1995 after rejecting a boy selected by the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.
Chinese leaders installed their choice in the Panchen Lama's monastery in Shigatse in 1999 after years of education near Beijing.
But many Tibetans regard the boy as a fake and revere the Dalai Lama's choice, who has since disappeared.
Tense relations between Beijing and the Dalai Lama were further strained last month when the 17th Karmapa Lama, one of Tibet's most senior religious leaders, escaped to India after a week-long journey over the snowbound Himalayas.