China to halt military exchanges, punish U.S. companies for arms sales to Taiwan

BEIJING, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Ministry announced Saturday that China will postpone bilateral military programs and security talks and punish certain U.S. companies in response to the U.S. government's greenlight on new shipments of advanced weapons to Taiwan.

According to a press release of the Foreign Ministry, China has decided to partially halt the exchange programs between the militaries of the two countries, as well as the vice-ministerial consultation on strategic security, arms control and anti-proliferation, which was originally scheduled to be held soon.

China will also impose sanctions on the U.S. companies involved in the arms sales to Taiwan, the press release says.

Sources from the Foreign Ministry said China-U.S. cooperation on major regional and international issues will also be inevitably affected by the issue.

The Chinese side made such decisions since the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan had "incurred severe damage to China-U.S. relations," the press release says.

The U.S. government on Friday announced the plans to sell a package of arms to Taiwan, which include Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters and minesweepers. China immediately expressed strong indignation about the sale after the U.S. government notified the U.S. Congress of the plans.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei on Saturday has summoned the U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman for an urgent meeting and lodged a solemn representation.

Such a move is gravely against the three joint communiques between China and the United States, especially the "Aug. 17" communique, in which the United States promised not to seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan, and intended to gradually reduce arms sales to the island.

He said, however, the United States has constantly sold various advanced arms and equipment to Taiwan, which severely broke its solemn commitment.

The United States announced its plan of arms sales to Taiwan according to the so-called Taiwan Relations Act when the cross-strait relations have seen apparent improvement and development, He said, noting that this will send a very wrong signal to the Taiwan side and the forces of Taiwan independence and seriously undermine the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

The U.S. decision "constitutes a gross intervention into China's internal affairs, seriously endangers China's national security and harms China's peaceful reunification efforts," a Foreign Ministry statement quoted He as saying.

The China-U.S. relations had witnessed a good start last year under the joint efforts of both sides. "This accords to common interests of the two nations," He said.

However recently, the United States stubbornly sticked to the Bush administration's wrong decision on arms sales to Taiwan, and conducted trade protectionism measures against China. "These actions severely disturbed the China-U.S. ties," he noted.

"The U.S. plan will definitely further undermine China-U.S. relations and bring about serious negative impact on exchanges and cooperation in major areas between the two countries, and lead to aftermath both sides are unwilling to see," He said.

The Taiwan issue is related to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and concerns China's core interests and the Chinese people's national sentiments. "It is always the most important and most sensitive core issue in the China-U.S. relations," he noted.

He urged the U.S. side to "fully recognize the gravity of the issue, revoke the erroneous decision on arms sales to Taiwan and stop selling weapons to Taiwan."

"Otherwise, the United States must shoulder the responsibility for the grave aftermath," he noted.

In 2008, China curtailed military exchanges with the United States after the Bush administration approved a 6.5-billion-U.S.-dollar Taiwan arms deal, including 30 Apache attack helicopters and 330 Patriot missiles.