Taiwan, US may face sanctions over new arms deals

China should sanction United States and Taiwan entities involved in the recent proposed arms deals and maintain its strategic pressure on Taiwan secessionists, with the sale damaging to Sino-US ties, officials said.

The Chinese military strongly opposes the US selling F-16s to Taiwan, calling the action a "complete mistake" and "very dangerous", Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense, said in an online statement on Friday.

The arms deal seriously violates the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, seriously interferes in China's domestic affairs and damages China's sovereignty and security interests, Wu said.

It also seriously undermines Sino-US military-to-military relations and bilateral ties, as well as seriously damages the peace and stability of the Taiwan Straits region, he added.

"The Chinese side urges the US to fully comprehend the severity of selling arms to Taiwan, and clearly evaluate the situation," Wu said.

The US State Department approved a potential $8 billion arms package－featuring 66 Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets, 75 General Electric engines and other support systems－to Taiwan, according to a statement by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Tuesday.

If approved by the US Congress, the deal will be one of the largest of its kind in recent decades and the first time since 1992 that the US has sold F-16s to Taiwan. The deal has drawn heavy criticism from the Foreign Ministry and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

Major General Luo Yuan, executive vice-president of the China Strategy Culture Promotion Association, said the F-16s sold to Taiwan have no significant advantage over Chinese jets from the same generation, such as the J-15 and J-16, and are vastly outnumbered and outgunned by the People's Liberation Army Air Force.

"Taiwan initially wanted to buy more advanced US aircraft, like the F-22 or F-35, but their wish fell through," he said, adding many experts have questioned the strategic significance of the recent purchase, given that Taiwan already has around 140 older-version F-16s, which were initially conceived in the early 1970s.

"The recent deal feels like a ripoff that will not increase the island's defense capability," he said, adding that the planes Taiwan bought will draw more risks and danger, rather than bring safety to the island.

Luo said the US is using Taiwan as a "pawn to contain China's rise", and the Democratic Progressive Party is willing to submit themselves to the US by paying an exorbitant amount of "protection fees" for unnecessary military equipment, risking the safety of the Taiwan people to achieve their political agenda of Taiwan secession.

"Taiwan people must wake up and be highly alert to this fact," Luo said. "The DPP is gambling with the future of Taiwan by attaching it to US war machines, pushing the island and its people ever closer to the abyss of war."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Wednesday that China will impose sanctions on US companies involved in recent proposed arms sales. China promised similar sanctions when the US State Department last month approved the sale of $2.2 billion worth of tanks and anti-aircraft missiles to Taiwan.

Apart from sanctioning US companies, Luo said China should also sanction Taiwan personnel and companies involved in the transactions. "We have to let them know buying weapons is inviting trouble," he said.