Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin speaks during a regular news briefing in Beijing on Friday, April 18, 2023. [Photo/fmprc.gov.cn]
China has expressed its opposition to military contacts between the United States and Taiwan, as well as arms sales to the island, and vowed to take resolute measures to defend the country's sovereignty and security interests.
Taiwan will buy as many as 400 land-launched Harpoon missiles from the US, and their production is expected to be completed by March 2029, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
The move seriously violates the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, and harms peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a daily news conference on Tuesday.
Facts have proven that the root cause of the new round of tensions across the Strait is the Taiwan authorities' repeated attempts to solicit US support for "Taiwan independence", he said.
At the same time, some people in the US are working with the Taiwan authorities to change the status quo in the Strait, and they intend to contain China by playing the "Taiwan card", Wang said, adding that such moves are "extremely dangerous" and no different from playing with fire.
He urged the US to stop military engagement with and arms sales to Taiwan, stop creating tensions across the Strait and avoid going further down the wrong path of colluding with the Taiwan authorities to change the status quo in the Strait.
China-related import and export activities of Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Missiles and Defense have been banned, in order to prevent Chinese products from being used for military purposes, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Tuesday.
Senior executives of the two companies have been banned from entering and staying in China, the statement said.
For Chinese enterprises' activities such as export, transit, transshipment and transportation related to the two US companies, relevant import and export activities will not be allowed.
