BEIJING, July 18: China has angrily slammed a US Congress resolution expressing "unwavering commitment" to providing Taiwan with the means to defend itself, and argued it will harm peace and stability, state media said on Sunday.
The Chinese foreign ministry's reaction, reported in the Beijing Youth Daily, was in response to a vote in the US House of Representatives three days earlier showing continued support for the 25-year-old Taiwan Relations Act.
"This will not only harm peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits and hurt Sino-US relations, but also damage the interests of the United States itself," ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue was quoted as saying.
"The US Congress resolution fabricates the so-called Chinese military threat, and advocates increasing arms sales to Taiwan and upgrading US-Taiwan military relations," she was quoted as saying.
The Taiwan Relations Act calls for the United States to "make available to Taiwan such defence articles and defence services in such quantity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defence capability."
The Act was passed in 1979, shortly after the US severed ties with Taiwan in order to shift diplomatic recognition to China, and has been key in determining unofficial American relations with the island since then. Last week, the Chinese government appeared to use a Hong Kong newspaper to warn that it might be forced to seek a definitive solution to the Taiwan issue before 2020. -AFP
