China's Ministry of National Defense on November 17 slammed the recently announced $330-million U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, vowing to take all necessary measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

In response to a media query, ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said the arms sales seriously violate the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, grossly interfere in China's internal affairs, undermine China's sovereignty and security interests, and send a gravely wrong signal to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces.

"We are strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to this, and have lodged solemn representations with the U.S. side," Zhang said.

Zhang said that any attempt to aid "Taiwan independence" with military means will only invite trouble upon oneself, and the scheme to "use Taiwan to contain China" is doomed to fail.

"We urge the U.S. side to immediately stop its wrongful actions of arming Taiwan so as to avoid harming the development of the relations between the two countries and the two militaries," he said.

"We also warn the Democratic Progressive Party authorities that squandering the hard-earned money of people in Taiwan to purchase weapons is nothing but a dead end, and that any attempt to seek independence by relying on external forces or resist reunification with arms is destined to fail," he added.