China has warned the United States that it will take “retaliation” after the Biden administration approved more than $1.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan.   

  Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said on Saturday that China was “strongly opposed” to the sales, which “seriously jeopardize China-US relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait”, and called on Washington to “immediately revoke”.   

  Liu’s comments on Twitter came after the Biden administration formally notified Congress on Friday of the proposed sales, which include up to 60 anti-ship missiles and up to 100 air-to-air missiles.   

  The State Department said the sales are in line with the long-standing US policy of providing defensive weapons to the island and called the “expeditious delivery” of such weapons “essential to Taiwan’s security”.   

  China, however, has accused the US of interfering in its internal affairs.   

  China’s Communist Party claims Taiwan, a self-governing republic, as part of its territory – although it has never ruled it – and has long vowed to “reunify” the island with the Chinese mainland, by force if necessary.   

  “The US is interfering in China’s internal affairs and undermining China’s sovereignty and security interests by selling arms to Taiwan,” Liu wrote on Twitter.   

  “It sends wrong messages to the separatist forces of ‘Taiwan independence’ and seriously endangers China-US relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” Liu said.   

  He called on the US to “honor its commitments to the one-China principle” and ended his series of tweets by saying that Taiwan is an “inalienable part of Chinese territory” and warned that China “will resolutely take legal and necessary countermeasures.  ”   

  US-China tensions have soared since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last month.   

  China had warned Pelosi against making the trip and responded by ordering days of military exercises around the island after she left.   

  Taiwan said on Saturday it “warmly welcomes” the latest arms sales and thanked the US government for “continuing to implement its security commitments to Taiwan”.   

  “In response to China’s recent continuous military provocations and unilateral changes to the status quo and the creation of crises, Taiwan’s determination to defend itself is extremely firm,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.   

  “This batch of arms sales includes a large number of various types of missiles needed to strengthen Taiwan’s self-defense, which fully demonstrates the great importance the US government attaches to Taiwan’s defense needs by helping our country acquire the necessary equipment for timely defense and to strengthen our national defense capabilities.”   

  In an incident that underscored heightened tensions, Taiwan’s military shot down a drone hovering over one of its island outposts just off the Chinese coast on Thursday.   

  A day earlier, Taiwan said it had warned of drones hovering over three of the islands it claims off the coast of the Chinese port city of Xiamen.