Wednesday April 25 8:47 AM ET
China Warns Arms Sale to 'Devastate' Ties with U.S.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said Wednesday the U.S. sale of advanced arms to Taiwan will bring ``devastating damage'' to Sino-American relations and hurt cooperation in missile non-proliferation.

``The Chinese government and people express strong indignation and absolute opposition to this decision of the United States government,'' state television quoted Vice-Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing as telling U.S. Ambassador Joseph Prueher.

The decision to sell ships, submarines and aircraft to Taiwan ``will have a grave impact on China-U.S. cooperation in the sphere of non-proliferation and bring devastating damage to China-U.S. relations,'' Li said.

In a strong protest he summoned Prueher to hear, Li demanded the United States ``immediately withdraw this mistaken decision and stop selling arms to Taiwan to avoid new grave damage to China-U.S. relations.''

``China reserves the right to make a further reaction,'' Li said of the biggest American arms package to Taiwan in a decade.

The United States announced Tuesday it was ready to sell to Taiwan, or help the island to buy, sophisticated arms including four Kidd-class destroyers, eight diesel submarines and a dozen P-3 submarine hunter planes.

Beijing considers Taiwan a wayward province which must be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Broken Promises

After 24 hours in which China's response was relatively restrained, Li lashed out at the United States, saying it had broken its 1982 commitment to limit weapons sales to Taiwan to defensive items and eventually phase them out.

He singled out the eight diesel-powered submarines Washington offered to help Taiwan buy as ``purely offensive weapons.''

``This not only makes the U.S. lie that it sells Taiwan only defensive weapons collapse by itself, it reminds the people of China and the world that the U.S. government goes back on its word,'' said Li, China's previous ambassador to Washington.

``The Chinese people must ask: what is America's intention in selling arms to Taiwan? Where does America want to take China-U.S. relations?''

China has so far not responded to comments by President Bush Tuesday abandoning long-standing ambiguity and declaring the United States would defend Taiwan if it was attacked by China.

In an interview taped for ABC's ``Good Morning America,'' Bush said Washington would do ``whatever it took'' to defend Taiwan.

Asked whether Washington had an obligation to defend Taiwan from Chinese attack, Bush said: ``Yes, we do and the Chinese must understand that.''

Previous U.S. administrations have stopped just short of promising to send forces to Taiwan's aid in the event of a Chinese invasion, although they have sent strong signals that they would intervene.

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