U.S. actions threaten peace, stability across Straits

China was severely concerned by and firmly opposed to the recent actions of the United States that have "again and again violated its commitment" of not supporting "Taiwan independence", said a Defense Ministry spokesman on Thursday, underlining that the U.S. side should show sincerity regarding resuming bilateral military communication.

"For some time, the U.S. side has repeatedly interfered in China's internal affairs by playing the 'Taiwan card' and even sent the wrong signal of assisting Taiwan in 'rejecting unification by force'," said Senior Colonel Tan Kefei of the Ministry of National Defense, stressing that the actions seriously harmed China's national sovereignty and security.

He made the remarks in response to some recent Taiwan media reports saying that the U.S. could announce multiple arms sales to the island before the end of the year.

Tan said that the actions by the U.S. side seriously threatened peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, posed a major strategic risk to relations between the two countries and both militaries, and sent a grave wrong signal to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces.

The spokesman outlined the commitments that the U.S. side made in the Aug 17 Communique that was jointly issued by China and the U.S. 40 years ago.

"In the communique, the U.S. explicitly recognized that there is only one China in the world, Taiwan is part of China and the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government of China," he said. "The U.S. explicitly committed not to pursue a long-term policy of selling arms to Taiwan and to gradually reduce arms sales to Taiwan until the issue is finally resolved."

However, in fact, Tan said, the U.S. has repeatedly reneged on its commitments. "In recent years, in particular, the U.S. side has hollowed out the one-China principle, constantly instigated arms sales to Taiwan, and created obstacles to China's peaceful reunification."

He warned that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan would only increase tensions and the risk of conflict and confrontation across the Taiwan Straits, stressing that, in the final analysis, Taiwan's security depends on the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations.

Tan urged the U.S. side to stop arms sales and military contact with Taiwan, and not to make repeated mistakes on the Taiwan question, warning that the People's Liberation Army would continue to take strong measures to firmly safeguard China's sovereignty and security interests.

The spokesman also emphasized "principles and a bottom line for developing relations between both militaries" when responding to some media reports that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin claimed the U.S. side was attempting to resume U.S.-China military communication channels, which were canceled by China as part of countermeasures following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August.

"Everything has a cause and effect," he said. "In response to the U.S.' previous malicious provocations, we took resolute countermeasures and firmly safeguarded China's sovereignty and dignity.

"If the U.S. intends to strengthen military communication with China, it should match its words with deeds and show sincerity by respecting China's interests and major concerns," he said.