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China's foreign minister blasts US over arms sales

China's Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan (唐家璇) yesterday accused the US of violating Chinese sovereignty by selling arms to Taiwan and warned that US interests would suffer as a result of the deal.

The US had "violated the sovereignty of the People's Republic of China and meddled in its internal affairs," Tang said at the end of a visit to Ukraine.

"I am convinced that ultimately the Americans are going to suffer themselves" because of President George W. Bush's decision to approve the sales, he said.

Earlier, in Beijing, the language was no less strong.

"The Chinese government and people express strong indignation and absolute opposition to this decision of the US government," state television quoted Vice-Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (李肇星) as telling US Ambassador Joseph Prueher. The decision to sell ships, submarines and aircraft to Taiwan "will have a grave impact on China-US cooperation in the sphere of non-proliferation and bring devastating damage to China-US relations," Li said.

In a strong protest he summoned Prueher to hear, Li de-manded the US "immediately withdraw this mistaken decision and stop selling arms to Taiwan to avoid new grave damage to China-US relations."

"China reserves the right to make a further reaction," Li said of the biggest US arms package to Taiwan in a decade.
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