China protested the sale of $1.83 billion in arms to Taiwan, summoning a U.S. diplomat to the foreign ministry to lodge a formal complaint and saying the country would impose sanctions on companies involved.
Kaye Lee, the U.S. Embassy’s charge d’affaires, was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang expressed displeasure over the first U.S.-Taiwan weapons sale in four years, according to a statement on the ministry’s website. Such protests had been expected and the transaction wasn’t seen as likely to cause lasting damage in relations between Washington and Beijing.
The transaction would increase to more than $20 billion the total bought from the U.S. by Taiwan during the tenure of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, his office said. The U.S. supplies armaments “of a defensive nature” to the island under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act in an attempt to balance China’s increasing military might.