China urges utmost prudence in US approach to Taiwan question

China's Ministry of National Defense has urged the United States to approach the Taiwan question with utmost prudence.

Ministry spokesperson Jiang Bin made the call at a press briefing on Thursday in response to a media query about the US pausing a $14-billion arms sale to Taiwan, while including $1 billion in the so-called "Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative" in its National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027.

"China's opposition to US arms sales to China's Taiwan region is consistent and clear," Jiang said.

The US side should abide by the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques, especially the August 17 Communique, and implement the important consensus reached at the meeting between the two heads of state, he said.

He urged the US side to honor the commitments and statements it has made to China, and take concrete actions to safeguard the stable, sound and sustainable development of China-US relations and military-to-military ties.

In the August 17 Communique signed in 1982, the US government declared it "does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan," and that "it intends gradually to reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan, leading, over a period of time, to a final resolution."