China strongly opposes U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, lodges solemn protests: spokesperson

BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- China strongly deplores and firmly opposes U.S. arms sales to China's Taiwan region and has lodged serious protests to the U.S. side, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Sunday.

On Nov. 30, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that the Department of State has approved 385 million U.S. dollars worth of arms sales to Taiwan.

The U.S. arms sales to China's Taiwan region seriously violate the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, especially the August 17 Communique of 1982 and China's sovereignty and security interests, said the foreign ministry spokesperson in response to the move of the U.S. side.

The sales are a severe breach of the international law, send a gravely wrong signal to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces, and are detrimental to China-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, said the spokesperson, adding that the decision to sell arms to Taiwan is simply inconsistent with U.S. leaders' commitment of not supporting "Taiwan independence."

"China deplores and firmly opposes it and has lodged serious protests to the United States," said the spokesperson.

"We call on the U.S. to immediately stop arming Taiwan and stop abetting and supporting 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces in seeking 'Taiwan independence' by building up its military," the spokesperson said, noting that China will take strong and resolute countermeasures to firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.