Senior Chinese officials have condemned a proposed $6bn weapons sale from the US to Taiwan, which would include ships, missiles and helicopters.
Officials including Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi have condemned the sale, which the US describes as part of its commitment to support the island, as a threat to US-Chinese relations.
“The US should truly respect China’s core interests and major concerns, and immediately rescind the mistaken decision to sell arms to Taiwan, and stop selling arms to Taiwan to avoid damaging broader China-US relations,” Jiechi said.
The proposed sale includes two Osprey-class mine hunting ships, 35 multifunctional information distribution system low-volume terminals (MIDS/LVT-1) and 25 MIDS on-ship terminals, and 12 Harpoon Block II missiles.
Taiwan also intends to purchase $3.1bn worth of 60 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, including 69 units each of common missile warning systems, radar warning receivers, infrared countermeasure sets and 310 pairs of night vision goggles.
In addition, Taiwan also requested 114 Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles, three radar sets and other related equipment and services, for a total cost of $2.81bn.
