Arms sales irks Xi

Trump called to revoke decision

CHINA urged the US to revoke immediately its “wrong decision” to sell Taiwan $1.42-billion (R18.5-billion) worth of arms, saying it contradicted a “consensus” China’s President Xi Jinping reached with US President Donald Trump, in talks in April in Florida.

The sale would send a very wrong message to “Taiwan independence” forces, China’s embassy in Washington said in a statement after a US state department spokeswoman said on Thursday the administration had told Congress of seven proposed sales to Taiwan, the first under the Trump administration.

China regards self-ruled Taiwan as a renegade province and has never renounced the use of force to bring it back under its control.

The US is the sole arms supplier to Taiwan.

“The wrong move of the US side runs counter to the consensus reached by the two presidents in and the positive development momentum of the China-US relationship,” the embassy said.

Trump was critical of China during his 2016 presidential campaign but his meeting at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida with Xi raised hopes for warmer relations.

Trump later played up his personal relationship with Xi, calling him a “good man”, and stressed the need for China’s help in reining in a defiant North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and missiles.

China’s anger over the US plan to supply Taiwan with weapons risks undermining Trump’s attempts to press China to help on North Korea.

The proposed US package for Taiwan includes technical support for early warning radar, high speed antiradiation missiles, torpedoes and missile components.

Beijing’s relationship with Taiwan has been frosty since President Tsai Ing-wen took power in Taipei last year.

Tsai’s office said yesterday the sale increased Taiwan’s ability to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. — Reuters