An armored vehicle attached to a brigade under the PLA 73rd Group Army dashes through a mound of dust during a training exercise on January 4, 2022. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Zeng Bingyang)

China on Tuesday vowed to take countermeasures after the US announced a plan to sell $100 million worth of Patriot missile upgrades to the island of Taiwan, which would be the first US arms sale to the island in 2022 and the second under the Biden administration.

The arms sale, again leeching money from Taiwan, will not bring safety to "Taiwan independence"  secessionists but instead push the island further toward catastrophe, said experts.

The sales of weapons by the US to China's Taiwan severely violates the one-China principle and the regulations of the three Joint Communiqués between China and the US, especially those in the August 17 communiqué, Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson at China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a regular press conference on Tuesday.

It severely harms China's sovereignty and security interests, China-US relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits, Zhao said. "China firmly opposes and strongly condemns this."

China urged the US to abide by the one-China principle and regulations of the three Joint Communiqués, cancel the arms sale plan immediately and cut off military ties with Taiwan, Zhao said.

China will take proper, powerful measures to resolutely safeguard our sovereignty and security interests, Zhao said.

Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson at the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said on Tuesday that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority is seeking "independence" and making provocations by colluding with external forces, abusing the hard-earned money of the people in Taiwan to buy US weapons, but this cannot save "Taiwan independence" forces' destiny of doom and will only escalate tensions in the Taiwan Straits and push Taiwan into catastrophe.

The remarks by Zhao and Ma come after the Pentagon announced on Monday that it approved a possible $100 million sale of equipment and services to the island of Taiwan to "sustain, maintain, and improve" its Patriot missile defense system, Reuters reported on the day.

A statement from the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said it had delivered the required certification notifying Congress following State Department approval for the sale, Reuters reported, noting that the main contractors would be Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin.

This will be the first US arms sale to Taiwan in 2022, and the second under the Biden administration, following the $750 million sale of M109A6 self-propelled howitzers plus related equipment and services announced in August 2021.

Zheng Jian, director of the National Taiwan Research Association and a chair professor at the Graduate Institute for Taiwan Studies of Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the US is trying to upset China while it is hosting the Winter Olympics.

Such arms sales cannot bring safety to "Taiwan independence" secessionists but instead invite more military pressure from the Chinese mainland, Zheng said.

This is also not the first time the island of Taiwan has paid for upgrades for Patriot missiles. In July 2020, the US announced the approval of an arms deal to Taiwan the recertification of Patriot air defense missiles for $620 million.

Song Zhongping, a Chinese mainland military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the US is using Patriot missiles to leech money from Taiwan, since the missiles would need constant upgrades and maintenance.

The US wants to earn more money and boost "Taiwan independence" secessionists' ambitions at the same time, but does not care if the weapons are useful against the Chinese mainland, Song said.