China on Monday urged the U.S. "not to play with fire" on the Taiwan issue after the U.S. approved the potential sale of military-technical assistance to Taiwan worth an estimated $108 million. 

The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement on Friday that the State Department has made a determination approving a possible foreign military sale to the "Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States of Blanket Order Contractor Technical Assistance Support and related equipment."

This will be the fifth arms sale to the Taiwan region since U.S. President Joe Biden took office in January 2021 and the fourth one this year.

China firmly opposes U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and urges the United States to revoke the arms sales plan, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said during Monday's press conference. 

The U.S. arms sales to China's Taiwan region seriously violate the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, particularly the August 17 Communique, gravely undermine China's sovereignty and security interests, and severely harm China-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits. 

"China firmly opposes and strongly condemns this, and has lodged solemn representations with the U.S. side," he said. 

Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, on Monday criticized the move as a serious violation of the U.S. commitment not to support "Taiwan independence."

The Democratic Progressive Party authority will only further damage the interests of Taiwan compatriots by buying weapons with their money, she said. 

Chinese Ministry of National Defense on Monday also expressed strong opposition to the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan and vowed to defeat any foreign intervention and any attempts to seek "Taiwan independence."

China urges the U.S. to immediately cancel the arms sales plan to the Taiwan region. Otherwise, the responsibility for damaging China-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits will be borne solely by the U.S. side, said Tan Kefei, a spokesperson for the ministry.

(Cover: The Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei, Taiwan, southeast China. /Xinhua)