US blasted for planned arms sale to Taiwan

China urged the United States on Tuesday to immediately revoke its planned military sale to Taiwan at an estimated cost of $2.2 billion, and end its weapons sales and military ties with Taiwan.

China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to the proposed sale, and has lodged solemn representations to the US, said Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee.

Taiwan is an inseparable part of China's territory, Yang said during a meeting in Beijing on Tuesday with Igor Ivanov, president of the Russian International Affairs Council and a former Russian foreign minister.

Yang added that the sale is a grave violation of the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiques.

Also, it damages China's sovereignty and security interests and severely jeopardizes peace and security across the Taiwan Straits, Yang said.

The Taiwan question purely falls within China's domestic affairs in which no foreign interference is allowed, he said, adding that China's government and people are firmly determined to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Yang urged the US to fully understand the severe harm posed by its weapons sales to Taiwan and abide by the one-China policy and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiques.

Also on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang called the US move "brutal interference in China's domestic affairs", and said no one should underestimate China's will to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity and to stand against foreign interference.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, also expressed "firm opposition" to the planned sale, urging the US to stop sending "severely wrong signals" to the separatist forces of "Taiwan independence".

"Once again, I would like to inform the Democratic Progress Party that any act of relying on foreign forces and elevating cross-Straits tensions will definitely backfire," Ma added.

The US State Department has approved the proposed sale, including M1A2 Abrams tanks and Stinger missiles, according to statements from the US Department of Defense's Security Cooperation Agency issued on Monday. It is the largest possible military sale yet to Taiwan the US State Department has approved since US President Donald Trump took office in January 2017.