While China's opposition to the U.S. military's support of Taiwan is well established, the level of protest emanating from Beijing over the past week has brought new tensions to the U.S.-China relationship which spans the increasingly interdependent economic relationship between the two countries.
The past month has marked a number of setbacks in the relationship between Beijing and Washington, beginning with the Jan. 12 announcement by Google that it would cease censoring its search results in response to the hacking of several email accounts.
The threat to sanction U.S. companies participating in the upcoming arms sale to Taiwan came after last week's announcement that the Pentagon had approved a 6.4-billion-dollar arms deal with Taiwan that included Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters, mine-hunting ships and other weaponry but did not include upgraded F16 fighter jets or submarines - weapons which Beijing has been intent on preventing the U.S. from selling to Taiwan.
Further clouding the U.S.-China relationship is the upcoming meeting between the Dalai Lama and Pres. Obama.
China has sought to shift the investments from its balance of payments surplus away from U.S. dollars and into equities and commodities and Obama has been under pressure to address the growing trade deficit with China.(Source: Newjerseynewsroom.com, Feb 3, 2010).