China has urged the United States to respect its national interests by ceasing to sell weapons to Taiwan, said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei.

His remarks came during a January 9 interview with Xinhua News Agency following Washington’s final approval of two American military contractors to sell weapons to Taiwan. Their sales plan was part of an arms sales package announced under the Bush administration in October 2008.

“The U.S. arms sales to Taiwan seriously contravene the principles enshrined in the three Sino-U.S. joint communiqués—in particular the August 17 Communiqué—while undermining China’s national security as well as peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits,” he said. “China is resolutely opposed to this move.”

The August 17 Communiqué, issued by China and the United States in August 1982,stated the United States would not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan and that it would gradually reduce overall arms sales.

The Taiwan question has always been the “most important and sensitive issue at the core of China-U.S. relations,” the senior Chinese diplomat added.

China, he said, hopes the United States will cooperate to advance bilateral ties—rather than damage them.

China and Africa

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi visited five African countries—Kenya, Nigeria,Sierra Leone, Algeria and Morocco—as well as Saudi Arabia between January 5-14, as China and its African partners begin carrying out the joint initiatives that they agreed on more than two months ago.

China stands ready to implement the follow-up actions of the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), along with FOCAC member states, Yang said at a meeting with Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma.

At the FOCAC event held in early November 2009 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt,Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao declared eight measures, including providing $10 billion in concessional loans to African countries, to promote Sino-African relations.

During Yang’s visit, Morocco announced its decision to recognize China as a market economy—a move the Chinese foreign minister believed would give impetus to trade between the two countries.

This was Yang’s first foreign trip in 2010,the 20th consecutive year China’s foreign minister has made his first trip of year to Africa.