Reuters
Feb 5, 2010

MUNICH (Reuters) – China is indignant about new U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and its opposition to them is “very reasonable,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Friday.

China has said it will impose unspecified sanctions on U.S. firms selling weapons to Taiwan in retaliation for the U.S. announcement that it planned to sell $6.4 billion of arms to Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province.

“The Chinese government and people feel indignant about this,” Yang told a security conference in Germany. “I do hope the U.S. will change its behavior … and will stop arms sales to Taiwan.”

“What China has done is very reasonable and what any dignified people would do,” he added.

Beijing has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s communist forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT fled to the island.

China has threatened to attack if Taiwan tries to formalize its de facto independence.    more …