BEIJING, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A $5.85 billion U.S. plan to upgrade Taiwan's F-16 A/B fighters is a "serious blow" to improving Sino-U.S. relations, a China Daily opinion piece said.
In continuing the strong Chinese attacks on the United States over the weapons sales to Taiwan, Friday's opinion piece in China Daily went on to say: "Washington's new arms sale to Taiwan squanders chances for further cooperation in political and economic areas."
The article appeared a day after Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, speaking in New York, asked the United States to "correct its error" by immediately revoking the Taiwan sales in the interest of Sino-U.S. relations.
Writing in Friday's China Daily, Shen Dingli, a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai and director of its Center for American Studies, went on to say: "Washington's announcement that it will upgrade Taiwan's F-16A/B fighters is a serious blow to improving Sino-US relations."
Shen rejected as "an incorrect argument" by the United States that it had exercised self-restraint as the upgrades only provide defensive weapons systems to maintain the balance of military power between Beijing and Taipei under the Taiwan Relations Act.
China claims Taiwan as part of its territory although the two have had separate governments since 1949.
"No country is entitled to intervene into another country's internal affairs, China's included, short of a United Nations' Security Council mandate," the article said.
"While Taiwan residents deserve protection, it should not come at the expense of the rights of Chinese people living on the mainland, namely national sovereignty and integration," the article said.
The article noted the United States had declined to provide the more sophisticated F-16C/D fighters to Taiwan but added the upgrades are still a serious incursion into China's core interests.
