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A planned American arms sale to Taiwan may damage US-Chinese relations and disrupt efforts to achieve unity on nuclear stand-offs with Iran and North Korea, official sources in Beijing indicated yesterday.

The warnings came as Yang Jiechi, the Foreign Minister, yesterday became the most senior Beijing official to denounce the $6.4 billion (£4 billion)
package that Washington says is part of its commitment to protect the
island.

Mr Yang said that Washington had ignored Beijing’s demands to halt the sales despite many rounds of discussions. He said that the US should “truly
respect China’s core interests and major concerns, and immediately rescind
the mistaken decision to sell arms to Taiwan, and stop selling arms to
Taiwan to avoid damaging broader China-US relations”.

Official news outlets warned that the feud could damage diplomacy involving two permanent members of the UN Security Council. US efforts to win China’s
backing in its nuclear stand-offs with Iran and North Korea could be in
jeopardy, the Xinhua news agency hinted.

It said that the sales “will cause seriously negative effects on China-US exchanges and co-operation in important areas, and ultimately will lead to
consequences that neither side wishes to see.”

A commentary in the China Daily also reflected official fury. “China’s response, no matter how vehement, is justified. When someone spits on you,
you have to get back.

“From now on, the US shall not expect co-operation from China on a wide range of major regional and international issues. If you don’t care about our
interests, why should we care about yours?”

China, which claims that Taiwan is a renegade province that must be recovered by force if necessary, said it would postpone or halt military exchanges,
including visits planned for this year.

The freeze on military exchanges is Beijing’s usual response to such sales, which have been going on for years. The most recent occasion was in 2008.
However, this is first time that Beijing has tried to put pressure on the US
by punishing private companies whose arms are part of the package.

Beijing threatened unspecified sanctions against those companies unless Washington cancelled the new arms sales. Among the sales, subject to
congressional review, would be Black Hawk utility helicopters built by
Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies; Lockheed Martin-built and
Raytheon co-integrated Patriot missile defenses; and Harpoon land and sea
attack missiles built by Boeing.