China warns U.S. over $5.8B Taiwan arms deal

BEIJING - China's military exchanges with the U.S. will suffer after Washington announced a $5.85 billion arms package for Taiwan, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday, confirming expectations that Beijing would retaliate over the sale.

High-level exchanges, joint drills, and other large-scale activities will be affected "in light of the serious damage" resulting from the sale, ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said at a news conference open to Chinese reporters only.

That follows the months-long suspension of military contacts last year following the announcement of another arms deal for Taiwan. China views such exchanges as a political bargaining chip, frustrating U.S. officials who say they are important in building confidence and avoiding confrontations as China's military modernizes.

It wasn't clear whether additional retaliation would be taken.

Analysis: US-Taiwan F-16 sale aims at compromise
Sign of China's growing military might sets sail
U.S. military leader sees stark rift with China

Chinese vice president and future leader Xi Jinping was expected to make an important visit to Washington in coming months but no specific dates have been announced. There have also been calls in the media and among the military for commercial reprisals against companies involved in the upgrades, but China's own fledgling commercial aerospace and other high-tech industries rely heavily on American technical expertise.

China regards self-governing Taiwan, which lies 100 miles off the coast of the mainland, as part of its territory. The U.S. is obligated under legislation passed by Congress in 1979 to provide the island with weapons for its self-defense.

The U.S. sparked Chinese anger by agreeing to upgrade Taiwan's fleet of 145 F-16s that the U.S. sold it in the 1990s, although it deferred a request to sell the island a more advanced version of the plane.

U.S. officials said Chinese diplomats had earlier told them China would respond by canceling or postponing some U.S.-China military exchanges.

However, the chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Adm. Robert Willard, said Tuesday Beijing was very likely to retain the highest-level exchanges of visits because of their importance to China, allowing the two sides to continue strategic discussions.

The Obama administration has deepened ties with Beijing, and sees the military exchanges as mitigating the risk of U.S. forces tangling with China's in East Asia and the West Pacific. Since May, the U.S. joint chiefs of staff and his Chinese counterparts have both visited each other.

[rds13601]

This is where the Us has negotiating power with China. Tell China to lift tarifs and ease restrictions on American products. Instead of F-16's raise the stakes and offer Taiwain mothballed Steath F117's. Tell them to quit supporting Iran and back off in Pakistan. And maybe not fire unarmed sub launched missiles at the United States west coast over the South China Sea.

[noloyalisti]

Give us a break China, all we buy is poisoned cheap plastic crap from Wal Mart. And the only thing we are good at making are weapons. What's a dying imperialist country like America supposed to do?

[Overruled1]

China is a sworn enemy of the U.S. or did people forget?
How our factories ended up in China is going into the history books as one of the greatest scams ever perpetrated on the American people.
They have in all their economic might (based on slave wages for the most part) combined with our factories been given favored nation status, but have done little to earn that title since.
I say we change the discription of what a favored nation behaves like:

Freedom of travel, freedom of the press, freedom to congregate for prayer, freedom to protest, free expression and political freedoms, not one party systems.
We saw how they whitewashed the Olympics...we should never have gone, and boycotted the events.
That nation also wouldn't manipulate the currency to gain economic stranglehold with us either like China has.

[Overruled1]

Let me add that we've seen this sort of thing in the past and should be very careful as this may in the future become a heated war.
What I talk about is giving governments the power to build a military such as China is beginning to do today. They just launched their first aircraft carrier...I remember when they denied they were planning on one, now all of a sudden, we have a chinese aircraft carrier.
So it's not a sophisticated as ours is today, well that's not the issue, the issue is that they have gaine the manufacturing base for making weapons of that sort and the titans of industry are quite happy about that because the Chinese seek to fill their inventories.

A word about China....
In all their history, they have only traveled outside "heaven" in large 9 masted ships called "treasure ships" during the Ming dynasty, with exception to the local island nations which they have warred with for milleniums.
The ships were massive in size and were around 50 years before Columbus sailed, hundreds of such ships existed and documentation shows they travelled far and wide.

[UForgotPoland]

We'll stop arming Taiwan as soon as they stop arming Iran and the Sudan.

[rightbehind]

The world is a very dangerous place now. The free trade neocons in order to line their pockets have allowed technology vital to US national security to leave our borders. You can't put the Genie back in the bottle once he's out. Our manufacturing sector has been devastated through neoconservative free trade policies. It's now questionable if we are in a position to defend ourselves. I apologize to our children. I voted Ronald Reagan. Our children's futures have been robbed.

[rightbehind]

Obama and Clinton are both centrist. Laws come from the congress up. Not the President down. Clinton had a republican congress. NAFTA was started by Bush Sr. and was signed into law by Clinton. I can't stand Clinton nd will have to hold my nose to vote for Obama. I don't have anything against trading commodities. It's manufacturing I don't want to see off shored. We should immediately begin to lock the doors behind all manufacturing companies that have off shored. I'm not against them manufacturing off shore so long as the product stays in that country. We need to stop economic undermining.

[Dgunner]

When american citizens stop bit--ing and start boycotting you will see a change. The spoiled people we are are because the imports are evrywhere.The only foriegn made object in my home is this computer and if the american manufaturers weren't so greedy and didn't cut corners they would be competitive.Until the boycotss like in the 70s return we are all sheep happy with what you get and then b--ch about the govt. on cbs posts.

[Anotheryahoo]

Communist China should be held accountable for the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Lets tell them if they become a democracy we wont sell Taiwan any weapons to protect itself from the Communist!

[mask2697]

China isn't communist, they are a dictatorship, what people don't get is that communism is actually a great thing, but no nation has successfully pulled it off, USSR=Dictatorship
Peoples republic of Korea (North Korea)=Dictatorship
Peoples state of China=Dictatorship
Just about anything called a peoples republic=Dictatorship
even though they claim to be communist they actually aren't...

[TWONPOO]

China is a dictatorship, yet the people there still enjoy more freedom than a fascist america, or britain. the dprk, maybe a dictatorship but at least their people are free from the corporate fascism that america, europe, canada, australia are infected with. i love how this article spins the truth, as the corporate media usually does, and tries to make america look like the good guy when in fact, war mongering usa, is always looking for a reason to start a war.