China fumes over Taiwan arms

CHINA: Chinese state media blasted the United States on Monday for a planned $6.4 billion arms package for Taiwan but US officials said they hoped the flap would be temporary and not derail cooperation.

The arms sales, the latest by the United States but the first by the Obama administration, has added to a litany of strains between the world’s biggest and third-biggest economies, including the value of China’s currency, trade protectionism, Internet freedoms and Tibet.

The official China Daily said US weapons sales to the self-ruled island, which China claims as its own, “inevitably cast a long shadow on Sino-US relations.”

“China’s response, no matter how vehement, is justified. No country worthy of respect can sit idle while its national security is endangered and core interests damaged,” the English-language newspaper said in an editorial.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the US-China relationship was important and “I don’t think that either country can afford to simply walk away from the other.”

Beijing, Reuters