FM: US to blame for damage of bilateral relations

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-07 22:41

BEIJING - The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday renewed its condemnation on the United States' proposed arms sale to Taiwan and said the American side should take full responsibility for the damage of ties between the two countries and their respective armed forces.

"The US side's act has seriously blocked bilateral exchanges and contacts in various fields, including high-level visits between the two armed forces. The US side should take full responsibilities for the current situation of damaged military-to-military ties," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular press conference here.

He said China always valued the relations with the US armed forces, and had made active efforts to promote the Sino-US military exchanges over many years.

The relationship between the Chinese and US militaries as a whole enjoyed sound momentum of positive growth. In such a condition, the US government, in spite of China's strong objection, on Friday notified the US Congress about its plan to sell arms to Taiwan, including Patriot III anti-missile system, E-2T airborne early warning aircraft upgrade system, Apache helicopters, Javelin missiles, Harpoon submarine-launched missiles, and some airplane accessory parts.

"The US move undoubtedly poisoned the good atmosphere of the military relations between the two nations, seriously endangered Chinese national security, and severely hindered the exchanges in various fields, including the high-level exchanges between the two armed forces," Qin said.

He said "the United States should bear full responsibility for the current situation of Sino-US military relations."

Stuart Upton, a US Defense Department spokesman, on Monday said Washington's arms sale program acted upon the provisions of the Taiwan Relations Act.

Qin said China, at the very start, firmly opposed the so-called "Taiwan Relations Act," which ran counter to the principles of the three Sino-US joint communiques and the fundamental norms governing international relations.

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