Beijing Slams Washington for Taiwan Content in US Defense Spending Bill

China expressed severe criticism over US President Barack Obama’s signing defense policy bill, which includes the provision on cooperation with Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

BEIJING (Sputnik) – On Friday, the White House announced that Obama signed into law the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to set the budget for the US Department of Defense. The US Senate and House of Representatives passed the 2017 NDAA earlier in December. The Act increases base funding by $9 billion and provide US soldiers a 2.1 percent pay raise.

"We firmly oppose relevant content of the bill on US defense budget … We express deep resentment over the signing of the act," Hua said in a statement late Sunday.

China calls on the United States to stop interacting with Taiwan in the military area in order to avoid damaging US-China relations, Hua added.

After Chinese Nationalist forces were defeated by Mao Zedong’s Communists, the Nationalist government moved to Taiwan in 1949. Since then, Beijing has viewed the self-ruled, democratic island as a breakaway province. The United States, along with many other countries, does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation and sticks officially to the "One China" position, but has kept informal relations with the island after severing diplomatic ties with it in 1979.