China has warned the United States that it will take "countermeasures" after the Biden administration approved more than $1.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan.
Chinese Embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said Saturday that China is "strongly opposed" to the sales, which "gravely threaten China-US relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait" and called on Washington to "immediately rescind them " them, CNN reported.
Liu's comments on Twitter came after the Biden administration formally notified Congress of the proposed sales.
The State Department said the sales are in line with a long-standing US policy of providing defensive weapons to the island and described the "rapid provision" of such weapons as "essential to Taiwan's security".
China, however, has accused the US of interfering in what it sees as its internal affairs.
also
US approves $2 billion arms sale to Taiwan
China's Communist Party claims Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, as part of its territory - despite never having governed it - and has long vowed to "reunify" the island with China, by force if necessary.
"The US interferes in China's internal affairs and undermines China's sovereignty and security interests by selling arms to Taiwan," Liu wrote on Twitter.
