FILE - In this Sept. 10, 2015 file photo, Taiwan's military fire artillery from self-propelled Howitzers during the annual Han Kuang exercises in Hsinchu, north eastern Taiwan. The State Department has... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Sept. 10, 2015 file photo, Taiwan's military fire artillery from self-propelled Howitzers during the annual Han Kuang exercises in Hsinchu, north eastern Taiwan. The State Department has approved arms sales to Taiwan worth a total of $1.4 billion, the first such deal with the self-governing... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Sept. 10, 2015 file photo, Taiwan's military fire artillery from self-propelled Howitzers during the annual Han Kuang exercises in Hsinchu, north eastern Taiwan. The State Department has approved arms sales to Taiwan worth a total of $1.4 billion, the first such deal with the self-governing... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Sept. 10, 2015 file photo, Taiwan's military fire artillery from self-propelled Howitzers during the annual Han Kuang exercises in Hsinchu, north eastern Taiwan. The State Department has... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has approved arms sales to Taiwan worth a total of $1.4 billion, the first such deal with the self-governing island since President Donald Trump took office, officials said Thursday. 
 
 The sale will anger China, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory. It comes at a delicate time for relations between Washington and Beijing over efforts to rein in nuclear-armed North Korea. 
 
 The sale to Taiwan comprises seven items, including technical support for early warning radar, anti-radiation missiles, torpedoes and components for SM-2 missiles, according to a U.S. official who requested anonymity to discuss the details before they were formally announced. 
 
 State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the Trump administration had notified Congress of its intent to approve seven proposed deals now valued at around $1.4 billion. Nauert said the approvals did not violate the Taiwan Relations Act that governs U.S. contacts with the island. 
 
 "It shows, we believe, our support for Taiwan's ability to maintain a sufficient self-defense policy," Nauert said. "There's no change, I should point out, to our 'one-China policy.'" 
 
 Taiwan's defense ministry on Friday thanked the U.S., saying, "The arms sale will help strengthen our country's self-defense capability and maintain the peace on Taiwan strait." 
 
 Lawmakers, which are generally strongly supportive of such sales, have 30 days to object. The U.S. is legally obligated to sell weapons to Taiwan for its self-defense. 
 
 The U.S. official said the sales represented upgrades, converting existing systems from analog to digital. The total includes roughly $1.3 million in transactions that are considered "foreign military sales," plus another commercial deal that also requires U.S. government approval and brings the total to $1.4 billion. 
 
 The last U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, worth $1.8 billion, were announced in December 2015. They included two decommissioned U.S. Navy frigates, anti-tank missiles, amphibious assault vehicles and Stinger surface-to-air missiles, and was the first sale for four years. 
 
 China objected strongly, but it did not notably set back U.S.-China relations and military ties, which has happened after past arms sales to Taiwan. 
 
 However, relations across the Taiwan Strait have deteriorated since then, as Taiwan last year elected a leader from an independence-leaning party, Tsai Ing-wen. China has increased diplomatic pressure, cut off its contacts with the island's government and discouraged travel there by Chinese tourists. 
 
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 Associated Press writer Josh Lederman in Washington and video journalist Johnson Lai in Taipei contributed to this report. ||||| The decision by the United States to sell arms to Taiwan was “wrong” and violated a consensus reached when Chinese President Xi Jinping met US President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in April, Beijing told Washington. 
 
 The announcement of the US$1.4 billion deal comes a week ahead of Xi’s planned meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. 
 
 China’s ambassador to Washington, Cui Tiankai, told reporters that China firmly opposed the deal. 
 
 “We have expressed firm opposition to the US and we will reserve our right to take further action,” Cui told reporters at an event in Washington to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China. 
 
 A statement issued later by the Chinese embassy in Washington DC criticised the move as a breach of the consensus reached between the two leaders ar their first ever meeting. 
 
 “The wrong move of the US side runs counter to the consensus reached by the two presidents in Mar-a-Lago and the positive development momentum of the China-US relationship,” its said. 
 
 The arms sales package was announced by a US State Department spokeswoman on Thursday. 
 
 It comprises seven items, including technical support for early warning radar, anti-radiation missiles, torpedoes and components for SM-2 missiles, Associated Press reported. 
 
 The US Congress had been notified of the sale, State Department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, told a daily press briefing. 
 
 A US State Department official added in an email: “Today’s notifications are consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act and our support for Taiwan’s ability to maintain a sufficient self-defence capability. 
 
 “There is no change to our longstanding ‘one-China’ policy based on the Three Joint Communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act.” 
 
 The announcement came a day after the US Senate Armed Services Committee approved a bill that would allow regular stops by US naval vessels at Taiwan’s ports as part of an annual defence policy measure. 
 
 China responded to the bill with anger. “We are strongly concerned about and firmly opposed to the bill approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee,” Lu Kang, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on Thursday. 
 
 “The Taiwan question bears on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and belongs to China’s domestic affairs,” Lu said. “We urge the US to honour its commitment on the Taiwan question, immediately stop military contact and arms sales to Taiwan and avoid causing damage to the bilateral relationship and bilateral cooperation in a broader range of areas.” 
 
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 China’s Defence Ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Wu Qian also condemned the move. 
 
 “We are always firmly opposed to any form of official contact and military interaction between Taiwan and the US. 
 
 “We urge the American side to abide by its commitment to the Chinese side with regard to the Taiwan issue and stop military contacts with Taiwan, so as not to cause damage to the relations between the two militaries and the two countries as well as to the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Wu said in a press briefing. 
 
 Beijing considers Taiwan to be a breakaway Chinese province and tries to deter all countries from having formal ties with the island. US defence ties with Taiwan are a particularly sensitive issue. 
 
 Trump’s meeting with Xi at the G20 will be their second since the US president took office in January. The two met for a summit at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in April, which set the course for a series of high-level dialogues. 
 
 The Taiwan Relations Act, which guarantees US support for the self-governing island’s defence capacity, was signed in 1979, shortly after the US switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. 
 
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 “We are always aware that there are some negative things in our relationship”, Ambassador Cui said in Washington. “Our job is to make sure the positive development will be overwhelming, and we will continue to try the best to keep the relations on the right track.” 
 
 The last round of US arms sales to Taiwan was approved by Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama in 2015. The US sold about US$1.8 billion worth of equipment to Taiwan in that round, including frigates, missiles and amphibious assault vehicles, according to the Federal Register, a US government publication. 
 
 Every US president has approved arms sales to Taiwan since the Taiwan Act became law, starting with Jimmy Carter in his last year in office. ||||| (CNN) The US' decision to go ahead with the sale of a $1.4 billion arms package to Taiwan threatens to undermine US-Chinese relations, China's ambassador to Washington said. 
 
 Speaking to the People's Daily newspaper Thursday, Ambassador Cui Tiankai said recent US moves eroded the trust built when US President Donald Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida in April. 
 
 "US arms sales to Taiwan and the sanctions against Chinese enterprises have damaged the basis and mutual trust between the two countries, it also contradicts the spirit and consensus of the two leaders' meeting in Mar A Lago," said Cui. 
 
 A statement released by the Chinese Embassy in Washington said that the sale of arms to Taiwan "grossly interferes" in China's domestic affairs. "The Chinese side has lodged serious representation to the US side, and reserves every right to take further action," read the statement. 
 
 On Thursday, the Trump administration notified Congress of its plans to go ahead with the controversial arms package, the first such sale under President Trump. 
 
 State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said the agreement included "seven proposed defense sales for Taiwan," adding that the deal was valued at "about $1.42 billion." 
 
 A US official familiar with the deal told CNN that the package would include advanced missiles and torpedoes including the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon and MK 48 6AT Heavy Weight Torpedoes. 
 
 It will also include technical support for an early warning radar system. 
 
 The Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ed Royce, signaled strong support for the sale, calling it "long overdue" in a statement issued shortly after its announcement. 
 
 Congress has 30 days to raise any objections to the deal. 
 
 The announcement of the arms sale comes the same day the US Treasury Department announced a series of sanctions and measures that would among other things, sever US financial ties with China's Bank of Dandong, which the administration claims acts as a pipeline to support alleged illicit North Korean financial activity. 
 
 Both announcements came during Trump's meeting with South Korea's new president Moon Jae-in at the White House. Both leaders are anxious to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile program. 
 
 US relations with China 
 
 The unexpected timing of the deal -- which comes while Chinese President Xi is in Hong Kong commemorating the 20th anniversary of the city's return to China -- surprised many analysts. Zhang Baohui, professor of political science at Lingnan University, said until this week many high-profile Taiwanese had believed the US was moving away from them. 
 
 "(This arms deal) didn't go through for a while and some people suspected it was due to Trump's so-called reliance on China to resolve the North Korea issue ... so I think this arms sale could boost confidence (in US)," he said. 
 
 China considers self-governing democratic Taiwan a renegade province and Beijing has not ruled out using military force to bring Taiwan under its rule. 
 
 The US does not recognize Taiwan -- officially known as the Republic of China -- as an independent country, and adheres to the "one China" policy, which means it does not maintain an official relationship with Taiwan. 
 
 Nauert added that there was no change to the "one China" policy. 
 
 "Today's notifications are consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act, and our support for Taiwan's ability to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability," a US official familiar with the sale told CNN. 
 
 Under the Taiwan Relations Act the US is legally required to provide Taiwan with the ability to defend itself. 
 
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 In a move that seemed to portend a shift in US policy, President-elect Trump spoke to Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-Wen i n a phone call in December , upending decades of diplomatic protocol. 
 
 However, the Trump administration has since said that it remains committed to the decades-long "one China" policy. 
 
 China has long criticized US arms sales to Taiwan. 
 
 Taiwan's Ministry of Defense said in a statement Friday morning they were "sincerely grateful" for the US decision to go ahead with the arms deal. 
 
 "The arms sale was proposed by our country last year. The package includes eight types of equipment and system, which will boost our combat capabilities in air and sea," the statement said. 
 
 The State Department also issued a statement marking the 20th anniversary of the transfer of Hong Kong from the UK to China, saying the US was "concerned about any infringements on civil liberties" in Hong Kong. 
 
 It is unknown how the announcements will impact on Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the meeting of the G20 next month.
– The State Department announced Thursday that the US has reached a $1.4 billion arms deal with Taiwan; a source tells CNN it includes the sale of advanced missiles and torpedoes and technical support for early warning radar. Taiwan's Ministry of Defense said Friday it is "sincerely grateful" for the deal, "which will boost our combat capabilities in air and sea." But China is far less pleased. More: It's about protection: A US official tells CNN the deal shows "our support for Taiwan's ability to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability"—something the US is required to do under the Taiwan Relations Act signed in 1979. It's not unusual: The South China Morning Post notes every US president since Jimmy Carter has OKed arms sales to Taiwan. Former President Obama approved a $1.8 billion sale in 2015. Timing: This deal, however, comes at a "delicate time" in US-China relations, with tensions already high over North Korea, reports the AP. One China: A State Department rep says the US remains committed to its "one-China" policy, meaning it will not carry on an official relationship with Taiwan and does not consider it to be its own country. China views Taiwan as part of its territory. But China is peeved: The Chinese Embassy in Washington calls the deal a "wrong move" that "grossly interferes" in China's domestic affairs, per the Morning Post, adding China "reserves every right to take further action." What about Mar-a-Lago? China's ambassador to Washington adds the deal has "damaged the basis and mutual trust between the two countries" and "contradicts the spirit and consensus" of Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago in April, reports CNN. There's more: A rep for China's Foreign Ministry says the country is also "strongly concerned about and firmly opposed to" a new bill allowing US naval vessels to make routine stops at ports in Taiwan. Next up: The arms deal is likely to come up when Trump holds his second meeting with Xi at the G20 summit in Germany next week.