国内英语新闻:Chinese FM urges U.S. to stop selling weapons to Taiwan

NICOSIA, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi expressed his solemn position on the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan here Saturday, urging the U.S. to stop selling weapons to the Chinese province.

Yang, who is paying an official visit to Cyprus, said in disregard of strong opposition and repeated protest from China, the U.S. administration flagrantly announced its plan to sell the weapons to Taiwan worth about 6.4 billion dollars.

Such a move is gravely against the three joint communiques between China and the United States, especially the "Aug. 17" communique, Yang said, adding that it constitutes crude interference in China's internal affairs, and harms China's national security and peaceful reunification efforts.

China firmly opposes such a move which runs counter to the U.S. commitment to support the peaceful growth of the cross-Strait relations, he said.

The Chinese foreign minister urged the U.S. side to adopt a serious attitude towards the Chinese position, earnestly respect China's core interests and major concerns, revoke immediately the erroneous decision on the arms sales to Taiwan and stop selling weapons so as not to undermine the China-U.S. relations.

Yang Jiechi said China has repeatedly stated its position on the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. During a recent meeting in London between the foreign ministers of the two countries, the Chinese side again made clear its solemn stand on the issue, urging the U.S. side to fully recognize the gravity of the issue and stop selling weapons to Taiwan, he added.

The Obama administration Friday notified the U.S. Congress of the plan to sell the weapons to Taiwan. The arms sales would include 114 Patriot (PAC-3) anti-missile systems, 60 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, 12 Harpoon Block II Telemetry missiles, 2 Osprey Class mine hunting ships and a command and control enhancement system, according to a Pentagon website.