Beijing slams Washington for military aid to Taiwan: FM

BEIJING, Dec 22: China is very dissatisfied with the US military aid to Taiwan and has made a stern representation to Washington, according to a statement released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Sunday.
Incumbent US President Joe Biden announced on Saturday that he had allocated $571 million in military aid to Taiwan under the president’s right to allocate aid to a foreign state from US weapons and military equipment stockpiles.
“The US once again approved military assistance and arms sales to China’s Taiwan region. This seriously violates the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqu?s, especially the August 17 Communiqu? of 1982,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry also noted that US military aid to Taiwan seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security interests.
“The decision is a severe breach of the US leaders’ commitment of not supporting “Taiwan independence,” and sends a gravely wrong signal to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes it and lodged serious protests at once with the US,” the ministry noted.
The statement also noted that the Taiwan issue affected China’s core interests, and was the main red line in China-US relations that could not be crossed.
“To aid ‘Taiwan independence’ by arming Taiwan is just like playing with fire and will get the US burned, and to use the Taiwan question to contain China is doomed to fail,” the ministry emphasized.
(UNI)