Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi shakes hands with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in New York on Monday. David Karp / Associated Press

  UNITED NATIONS - Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Monday reaffirmed China's position on US arms sales to Taiwan, urging the United States to immediately correct its error by revoking its decision.

Yang made the remarks during a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the sidelines of the general debate at the UN General Assembly.

Chinese Ambassador to the US Zhang Yesui, Chinese Permanent Representative to the UN Li Baodong, US UN envoy Susan Rice and US Assistant Secretary of State Esther Brimmer also attended the meeting.

Yang said the wrong decision by the US gravely violated the principles of the three Sino-US joint communiques and the August 17 Communique, was a gross interference in China's internal affairs and seriously undermined China's security, its endeavor to achieve peaceful reunification and China-US relations.

"China urged the US to attach great importance to China's solemn position and take it very seriously, correct the mistake of selling weapons to Taiwan by revoking the above-mentioned wrong decision, eliminate its negative influence, stop arms sales to Taiwan and US-Taiwan military contact, and take real actions to uphold the larger interest of China-US relations," Yang said.

Regardless of China's repeated protests, the US administration announced last Wednesday a new arms package worth $5.852 billion to Taiwan, which included the upgrading of F-16 A/B fighter jets.

Clinton said the US is firmly committed to expanding, deepening and enhancing positive, comprehensive and cooperative relations with China.

The US adheres to the one-China policy and pays much attention to China's concerns about US arms sales to Taiwan, she said.

Washington "welcomes and supports the peaceful development of relations" between the mainland and Taiwan and will "continue to be devoted to promoting peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits", she said.

"The US is willing to properly handle the differences between (Washington and Beijing), and avoid disrupting cooperation between the two sides."

Li Jiaquan, a senior researcher with the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told China Daily that the top priority to maintain healthy Sino-US ties is for Washington to stop its arms sales.

"Sino-US ties mean a lot to both countries, their governments and people as the two rely heavily on each other in various fields," Li said.

Tao Wenzhao, a senior fellow at the Institute of American Studies of the CASS, told reporters earlier that China might take similar countermeasures to the moves last year, and there are likely to be retaliatory measures in the field of military exchanges.

Xinhua-China Daily