The People's Daily, the main mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party, said on Friday that the United States were playing with fire and could pay a "disastrous price" regarding an arms sale to Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory.

The Obama administration has still not come to a decision on whether to sell 66 late-model F16 aircraft to Taiwan, as part of an eight-billion-dollar deal that is aimed at phasing out its remaining F-5 fighters.

Beijing has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the potential arms sale, which has been pending since 2006. For its part, Taiwan, which Beijing considers an illegitimate breakaway province, says it needs the jets to counter China's growing military strength.

Both Washington and China's other neighbors have expressed concern about Beijing's increased military spending and territorial assertiveness.

There has been great pressure within the US, from the Republican Party in particular, to go ahead with the sale to Taipei and this has outraged the state media in China.

'Madmen on Capitol Hill'

"At present, some madmen on Capitol Hill are making uproar about consolidating and expanding this cancer," the People's Daily wrote in a commentary. It added that the US politicians were "wildly arrogant" and wondered aloud what might happen to China-US relations if the "crazy ideas" came to fruition.

The commentary appeared under the pen name "Zhong Sheng," which suggests the meaning "voice of China" that is sometimes used to reflect higher-level opinion.

There was also a passage about the fact that it had not been easy for relations between China and the US to reach the point they are at today and should thus be "cherished and protected" to the greatest extent.

Although ties between the world's two largest economies have improved considerably since Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the United States at the beginning of 2011, disputes over trade and currency, Tibet and the Dalai Lama, and arms sales to Taiwan remain sources of tension.

On Wednesday, China released a white paper on its peaceful development plans, saying it would avoid "invasion, expansion or war" but not at the expense of its claims on Taiwan.

Author: Anne Thomas (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Manasi Gopalakrishnan