Netizens decry US plan to sell arms to Taiwan

Many Chinese Internet users have voiced their strong feelings against the United States' decision to sell arms to Taiwan.

On Saturday an online petition co-organized by major Chinese news websites including the major news portal sohu.com was launched, urging netizens to "break the silence and condemn America's arbitrary action (the arms sale)".

More than 60,000 netizens had signed up to show their support for the petition as of yesterday.

Many Internet users have shown strong support for the Chinese government and some expressed explicit anger and even suggested detailed countermeasures against Washington.

A netizen, who claimed to be an Chinese American who signed his name as Mei Rui, wrote: "The US has many times crossed the line. (But) China (has) never carried out any severe punishments against it."

Many netizens have argued that China should take more actions because mere verbal warnings are not pressing enough to show that Taiwan is China's core interest.

The arms deal has also stirred online debates in the US, dividing opinions. An Internet user "justice for all" under a Wall Street Journal article headlined "US-China relations cool over arms deal", commented, "save the US first, the country is heading towards bankruptcy".

Yuan Peng, head of US studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told China Daily that the almost one-sided online responses from Chinese netizens shows that their tolerance is reaching a limit as they feel China's strength increase.

Yuan said netizens however should calm down and regard this matter as a lone incident as some comments have indicated a broader anti-America sentiment, which is not necessary.

(China Daily 02/02/2010 page11)