China’s diplomacy emphasized today that it “strongly condemns” the permission given by the US authorities to president of Taiwanhim Lai Ching-te, to make an “intermediate station” at Hawaiiwhere he was received by the governor of the American archipelago, while he announced that he would proceed with “decisive countermeasures” for the State Department’s decision to approve the sale of spare parts and more advanced radars for the F-16s of its Air Force fleet on the island.

The “stopover” is the first leg of the Taiwan leader’s Pacific tour, which he has billed as the start of a “new democratic era” and is provoking anger in Beijing.

China considers Taiwan its province, only to be reunited with the mainland after the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. It has never ruled out using force to do so.

“China strongly condemns the organization by the US of the ‘crossing’ of Lai Ching-te and expresses (…) its strong protest” to Washington, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

“China will closely monitor the development of the situation and take decisive and effective measures to defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added.

Beijing opposes any initiative that offers international legitimacy to Taiwan’s authorities and is outraged when any official contact between other countries and the island’s authorities is recorded.

In Hawaii, Lai Ching-te was welcomed by Governor Josh Green and Ingrid Larson, the director in Washington of the American delegation in Taipei (“American Institute in Taiwan”).

Beijing has increasingly accused Washington of breaking its promise not to have formal relations with Taipei.

Taiwan’s president will visit the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau, the only nations in the Pacific region among the 12 countries that still recognize Taipei — officially the Republic of China — and not Beijing.

Also today, the Chinese protest expressed its “strong opposition”, its “denouncement” and promised “decisive countermeasures” to the US approval of a new package of military hardware intended for Taiwan’s air force, worth $385 million.

“We urge the US to immediately stop arming Taiwan and stop encouraging and drawing attention to forces that seek to secure Taiwan’s independence and want to strengthen its military to achieve it,” China’s foreign ministry said in a separate statement. his announcement.

“China will take strong and decisive countermeasures to defend its national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” the text continued.

The US, although it does not diplomatically recognize Taiwan, is the main supporter of the island at the international level, from an economic and military as well as a diplomatic point of view.

Beijing’s relations with Taipei have deteriorated rapidly since 2016, when Tsai Ing-wen took over the island as president, to be succeeded by Lai Ching-te, her former vice president, in 2024.

The Chinese government accuses Taiwan’s leadership of systematically trying to separate the island from the rest of China by actively seeking secession. In response, Beijing has stepped up pressure on the island, politically, diplomatically and militarily, by organizing more and more military gymnasiums around it.