BEIJING, March 3: China pressed visiting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte on Saturday to reject a proposed sale of missiles to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own territory.

Negroponte was visiting Beijing on a three-nation Asian tour focused on North Korea and regional security.

In his meetings with Chinese officials, “the Chinese side expressed that it is firmly opposed to the export and sale of weapons to Taiwan and the United States maintaining official relations with Taiwan,” said Qin Gang, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman.

An American Embassy spokeswoman said the US government had no comment on the meetings.

China and Taiwan separated in 1949 but the communist Beijing government claims the island as part of its territory and has threatened repeatedly to attack. The United States is Taiwan’s main arms supplier, though Beijing vehemently objects to such sales.

Taiwan is trying to buy 218 AMRAAM medium range air-to-air missiles and another 235 Maverick missiles at an estimated cost of $421 million.

Negroponte met with Chinese Foreign Ministers Yang Jiechi and Dai Bingguo after arriving on Saturday from Tokyo. He was due to meet later with Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan.

The sides did not discuss Iran or North Korea but might later, Qin said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said earlier that the proposed missile sale would “seriously violate” previous commitments made by Washington to reduce arms sales to Taiwan and be a “rude interference into China’s internal affairs”.

“The Chinese side hopes that the United States can definitively keep its promise to work with the Chinese side together and fight and contain Taiwan independence in order to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Qin said. “This also goes in the American interest and would benefit regional peace and stability.”—AP