Article Posted on : - Sep 27, 2011

NEW YORK (AFP): Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Monday asked Washington to reconsider its decision to upgrade F-16 fighters for Taiwan when he met US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a US official said.

Underscoring “Chinese concerns with regard to the recently announced arms sales to Taiwan, Yang made “serious representations” about the move and asked “the Obama administration to reconsider this decision,” the official said.

The senior State Department official, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity, also said the Chinese have warned in separate conversations with US officials of potential damage to military ties.

If the F-16 upgrade is not revoked, “they indicated they are going to suspend, or cancel or postpone a series of...military-to-military engagements,” the senior US official said.

US President Barack Obama’s administration on Wednesday approved a USD 5.85 billion upgrade of Taiwan’s fighter jets that stopped short of selling new F-16s.

Taiwan and US officials said the upgrade would improve the island’s defences as it faces a rising China, which has ramped up military spending and widened its strategic edge over the self-governing territory.

Officials in Washington and Taipei said Taiwan would get a retrofit of 145 F-16 A/B fighter jets, which will be equipped with modern weapons and radar capable of detecting China’s new stealth airplanes.

Yang Jiechi, speaking in New York last week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, publicly urged the United States to scrap the deal, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, on Thursday urged the United States to cancel the deal and said it had jeopardised recent improvements in military ties between the two world powers and affected relations with Taiwan.

But analysts said the deal, which stopped short of selling new planes to Taiwan, would probably not be as damaging as an earlier arms package that led to a break in China-US military exchanges in 2010.