U.S. Urged to Revoke Arms Sales to Taiwan

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has become the latest high-ranking Chinese official to take issue with the United States over its latest announced arms sale to Taiwan.

CRI's Su Yi has more.

 
Yang Jiechi has joined a chorus of other Chinese officials, calling the US move wrong, and pressing the Americans to reverse the decision.

Yang also says the move has the potential to destabilize cross-strait ties.

He's made the statement in New York on the sidelines of the annual general debate of the United Nations General Assembly.

Despite repeated calls by the Chinese government to stop selling arms to Taiwan, the U.S. administration announced Wednesday a new arms package worth 5.85 billion U.S. dollars to upgrade 145 of Taiwan's fighter jets.

Yang said the US is once again ignoring the improvement of the peaceful ties that have developed between the mainland and Taiwan.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry¹ spokesman Hong Lei is warning that the move will damage US military and security ties with Beijing.

"The Chinese government and people strongly opposes it. The mistakes made by the US inevitably² hurt bilateral³ relations and cooperation in military and security of the two countries. The US takes full responsibility for that."

Meanwhile, Chinese Defense⁴ Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said the plan of U.S. to sell arms to Taiwan will create severe obstacles for normal military-to-military exchanges.

The Defense Ministsry has summoned the acting⁵ U.S. military attache to China to lodge⁶ a strong protest.

The move follows similar protests to US Ambassador Gary Locke.

Tao Wenzhao is a senior researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"China-US cooperation has been expanding in various areas and our mutual⁷ interests have been growing. Under such circumstances, Washington's continuous arms sales to Taiwan runs counter to the good momentum⁸ of China-US cooperation. I think the latest arms sales will mainly affect the security cooperation between the two countries. In fact, the military relationship is the weak point in the overall China-US relations, and the major obstacle in developing bilateral military ties is the US arms sales to Taiwan."

The Pentagon's last arms deal with Taiwan came in January of last year.

In the wake of that move, China suspended several of its military exchange programs with the US, which only recently became normalized again.

For CRI, I'm SU Yi.

1 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

2 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

3 bilateral   

adj.双方的，两边的，两侧的

参考例句：

• They have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal.他们一直在商谈一项双边贸易协定。
• There was a wide gap between the views of the two statesmen on the bilateral cooperation.对双方合作的问题，两位政治家各自所持的看法差距甚大。

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

6 lodge   

v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆

参考例句：

• Is there anywhere that I can lodge in the village tonight?村里有我今晚过夜的地方吗？
• I shall lodge at the inn for two nights.我要在这家小店住两个晚上。

7 mutual   

adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的

参考例句：

• We must pull together for mutual interest.我们必须为相互的利益而通力合作。
• Mutual interests tied us together.相互的利害关系把我们联系在一起。

8 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。