CHINA:China has renewed calls on the US not to sell Patriot missiles to Taiwan, saying it sends the wrong signal to the self-ruled island that Beijing considers a rogue province.
Senior diplomats made the request as pro-US demonstrators flew red, white and blue flags superimposed with maps of Taiwan outside the American Institute in Taipei, the de facto US embassy, and called for their island to be annexed to the United States.
China has claimed sovereignty over democratic Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 when the losing US- backed Kuomintang (KMT) fled there and set up what is formally called the Republic of China. The mainland has threatened to use force if the island formally declares statehood.
"We hope the US side . . . will stop selling advanced weapons to Taiwan, stop US-Taiwan official engagement and military contacts and cooperation," air force lieutenant-general Ma Xiaotian, who held talks with US deputy secretary of state John Negroponte in Washington this week, told the Xinhuanews agency.
Ma is deputy chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Weapons sales could embolden the island to push for formal independence, he said.
The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, recognising "one China", but is obliged by the Taiwan Relations Act to help the island defend itself.
There have been growing tensions between China and the US since the US defence department informed Congress last month about a possible sale to Taiwan of Patriot missile system upgrades valued at €643 million.
China was also angry at the decision to give a congressional award to exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Beijing responded by denying the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and its strike group permission to stop in Hong Kong for a Thanksgiving break. Then Beijing changed its mind and said they could dock after all, by which time the Kitty Hawk was heading back to its home port in Japan.
The flotilla headed back via the Taiwan Strait, prompting China to voice "grave concern" about the decision to pass through the narrow channel dividing the mainland from Taiwan, which Beijing considers its waters.
The Pentagon also accused China of refusing to let two minesweepers shelter from a storm in Hong Kong last month.
The only official comment on the matter came after the high-level defence meetings in Washington, where the US urged "greater military contacts." The Kitty Hawk incident "only came up in the context of an overall discussion about the importance of improving our military-to-military relations", a spokesman said.