Free Republic

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."

China has cancelled all military exchanges with the US in a sign of its anger at the proposed sale of advanced missiles and helicopters to Taiwan. Beijing has also imposed sanctions on the companies selling the arms. “We made the decision out of considerations on the severe harm of the US arms sales to Taiwan,” said Defence Ministry spokesman Huang Xueping in a statement. “The US plan will definitely seriously disturb the relations between the two countries.”