BEIJING: China\u2019s military will step up training and \u201ctake forceful measures\u201d to safeguard the country\u2019s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the defense ministry said on Friday in \u200bresponse to a planned $11.1 billion US arms sales package to Taiwan. The package, the largest ever by the United States to the island Beijing views as its own territory, comes as China has been stepping up its military and political pressure on Taiwan.<\/p>\n
The ministry said it had lodged \u201cstern representations\u201d with the United States, and urged the \u200ccountry to immediately cease \u200carms sales to Taiwan and \u200cabide \u2060by \u200bits \u200ccommitment not to support \u201cTaiwan independence forces.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe \u2018Taiwan independence\u2019 separatist forces, at the cost of the safety and well-being of Taiwan compatriots, use the hard-earned money of ordinary people to fatten US arms dealers in an attempt to \u2018seek independence by relying on military force\u2019,\u201d the ministry statement said.<\/p>\n
The United States, by repeatedly going back \u2060on its word, indulging and supporting Taiwan independence, is \u201cbound to get burned itself,\u201d \u200cthe ministry added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chinese People\u2019s Liberation \u200dArmy will continue to strengthen \u200dtraining and combat readiness, take strong measures to safeguard \u200dnational sovereignty and territorial integrity, and resolutely frustrate attempts at \u2018Taiwan independence\u2019 separatism and external interference.\u201d<\/p>\n
It did not give details on what exact steps it might take.<\/p>\n
Washington has formal diplomatic relations with Beijing, but \u200bmaintains unofficial ties with Taiwan and is the island\u2019s most important arms supplier. The US is \u2060bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, though such arms sales are a persistent source of friction with China.<\/p>\n
The latest weapons package includes HIMARS rocket systems, made by Lockheed Martin and which have been used extensively by Ukraine against Russian forces.<\/p>\n
Taiwan\u2019s democratically elected government rejects Beijing\u2019s sovereignty claims, saying only the island\u2019s people can decide their future.<\/p>\n
China has rebuffed repeated offers of talks with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, saying he is a \u201cseparatist.\u201d It has not ruled \u200cout the<\/p>\n
use of force to take control of the island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING: China\u2019s military will step up training and \u201ctake forceful measures\u201d to safeguard the country\u2019s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the defense ministry said on Friday in \u200bresponse to a planned $11.1 billion US arms sales package to Taiwan. The package, the largest ever by the United States to the island Beijing views as its own …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":91247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91248,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91233\/revisions\/91248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}