Photo: GETTY
The Pentagon's Defence Security Cooperation Agency has proposed to sell Taiwan 60 Black Hawk helicopters, Patriot "Advanced Capability" missile defences known as PAC-3, and mine hunters, though it did not meet Taipei's request for F-16 fighter jets.
China regards self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as a wayward offshore province subject to unification with the communist-run mainland and had urged Washington not to sell more arms to the island.
The move is sure to complicate already difficult relations between Washington and Beijing amid discord over trade, human rights, Internet censorship and climate change policy.
Shortly after the sale was confirmed, He Yafei, China's deputy foreign minister said the sale would "seriously harm" China's national security. He added that the move would have a "serious negative impact" on cooperation between Beijing and Washington.
The United States, Taiwan's main arms supplier, is mandated by law to aid Taiwan's self-defence, despite switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
The arms package was approved in principle by George W. Bush late in his administration, prompting Beijing to temporarily suspend military relations with Washington.
Gen James Jones, Mr Obama's national security adviser, indicated that the Chinese government had been fully consulted on the deal.
"We all recognise that there are certain things that countries will do periodically that may not make everybody completely happy," he said.
"But we are bent towards a new relationship with China as a rising power in the world, with influence on a variety of issues that go beyond the arms sales and go beyond military confrontation," he added.
The arms sales announcement may contribute to a bumpy year ahead in bilateral ties. Washington and Beijing have tangled over trade, cyber hacking and censorship of Google, Tibet and human rights.
Though the two powers are mutually dependent economically, China continues to irk Washington by failing to clamp down on intellectual property theft, undervaluing its current in order to make its exports cheaper and promoting import substitution measures that disadvantage foreign manufacturers.
left
The US Department of Defense has notified Congress of a potential arms sale to Taiwan, with a value of $6 billion, that was first pledged by the Bush administration.

The deal, that would include helicopters and anti-missile defences, angered China, who stated that the move would "seriously damage" US–China relations, as Beijing considers the island to be a break-away province of China, having split away after civil war in 1949.

There is a stand-off between China and Taiwan.  China has a large number of weapons aimed at Taiwan, and has threatened to use them in the past.  Taiwan denounces this, warning that, if 1,500 missiles were not removed, relations between the two nations would deteriorate. 

The act of notifying Congress is a legal requirement and does not mean that the sale will go ahead. A thirty-day deadline is in place for politicians to decide on the proposition before it goes ahead. In a statement, the Pentagon listed the items being negotiated over, including 114 Patriot missiles and sixty helicopters. It will also include two minesweepers. The US is the main arms supplier for Taiwan.

General James L. Jones, the National Security Advisor for the Obama administration, said that China had been fully consulted about the deal. "We all recognise that there are certain things that countries will do periodically that may not make everybody completely happy," he stated. However, he maintained that the US was "bent towards a new relationship" between themselves and China.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., Wang Baodong, said yesterday that the arms sale was a "gross intervention into China's internal affairs". He went on to assert that the trade "seriously endangers China's national security".

Ties between the United States and China, already stretched by the recent row over internet censorship, in which Google threatened to withdraw its presence in the country, have been strained by the announcement. China maintains, according to a press release on 22 January, that the Internet in their country is "open", with the "most vibrant" sites based in China. Beijing wishes the United States to "respect each other's core interest", and to "ensure the healthy stable development" of their relationship.