The White House responded to the angry reaction from Beijing over the planned arms sale to Taiwan. Reuters reports:
The official China Daily said U.S. weapons sales to the self-ruled island, which China claims as its own, “inevitably cast a long shadow on Sino-U.S. relations.”
“China’s response, no matter how vehement, is justified. No country worthy of respect can sit idle while its national security is endangered and core interests damaged,” the English-language newspaper said in an editorial.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the U.S.-China relationship was important and “I don’t think that either country can afford to simply walk away from the other.”
Gibbs said any sanctions against the companies involved in the arms sales, a move threatened by China for the first time, would not be warranted.
chinaSMACK has translated a piece from the Chinese media about the arms sale and several comments from readers here.