BEIJING (Reuters) – China suggested on Monday it could retaliate against the U.S. president. Joe Biden signed a law to strengthen Taiwan’s defenses and seeks to get TikTok’s Chinese owner to divest from the social media platform.
Biden signed legislation on Wednesday for a military aid package, with most of the money going to Ukraine to help repel the Russian invasion and to Israel. He also signed a separate bill related to the relief legislation that bans TikTok in the United States if its Chinese owner ByteDance fails to divest the app within nine months to a year.
Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian urged the United States not to implement the “negative China-related” parts of the legislation.
“If the United States stubbornly sticks to its course, China will take resolute and forceful measures to firmly defend its own security and development interests,” Lin said, without elaborating.
The United States is Taiwan’s largest international donor and arms supplier, even without formal diplomatic relations. China, which considers Taiwan its own territory, has repeatedly demanded an end to arms sales.
Taiwan’s democratically elected government, which rejects China’s sovereignty claims, welcomed the new legislation, saying it would help maintain security in the region.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen; writing by Bernard Orr; editing by Christian Schmollinger, William Maclean)
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