“China’s resolute opposition to US arms sales to Taiwan is consistent and clear,” ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing on Tuesday.
The Obama administration informally told US lawmakers on Friday it would upgrade Taiwan’s 140-plus existing F-16 A/B jets while deferring Taipei’s request for the more advanced F-16 C/Ds.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration would formally notify Congress of its decision on Wednesday. The official declined to confirm details of the package for Taiwan.
China will give its formal reaction to the arms deal only once it has been officially announced in Washington.
Beijing’s comments so far have been mostly limited to repeating its long-held stance of opposing weapons sales to the self-ruled island, and those remarks do not amount to a definitive response.
At a conference in the US state of Virginia on Monday, Taiwan’s deputy defense minister portrayed the administration as yielding to China at Taipei’s peril, pressing his government’s request for 66 new F-16 multi-role fighter planes built by Lockheed Martin Corp.
China has shown no sign of ending an arms build-up that is focused on Taiwan, and past US arms sales to Taipei have riled Beijing, which has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.
“I want to stress that no country or person can shake the Chinese government’s staunch will to defend the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and oppose outside interference,” spokesman Hong added.
Taiwan, which for years relied on better equipment and training, has been hobbled by the refusal of any country aside from the United States to sell it weapons, fearing an angry response from China.
The military advantage Taiwan once boasted in the air has slipped away over the past decade as China modernized, and analysts say the arms deal would do little to alter the balance.
The US government authorized a $6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan in January 2010, which prompted China’s military to suspend all meetings with their Pentagon counterparts and to threaten sanctions against US firms.
