China warns U.S. presidential rivals on Taiwan arms

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Thursday that the next U.S. president should not allow a repeat of a recent arms sale to Taiwan which it said had damaged ties between Beijing and Washington.

The U.S. government announced plans last week to sell a $6.5 billion package of arms to Taiwan, the self-governed island that Beijing says is a part of its sovereign territory. The package includes 30 Apache attack helicopters and 330 Patriot missiles.

Beijing said the deal threatened years of building military trust with Washington, and postponed military exchanges between the two countries.

Now it has warned John McCain and Barack Obama, the two men competing to succeed U.S. President George W. Bush, that it does not want a repeat of the sale.

McCain and Obama have said they support the sale.

"Thirty years of bilateral ties have showed us that when the Taiwan issue is properly handled, the base of the (U.S.-China) relationship will be protected and it can develop further. If not, the ties face difficulties," said spokesman Qin Gang.

"We hope the two candidates can realize this, and respect and uphold the one-China policy," he told a regular news briefing.

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to the island.

Beijing has vowed in the past to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary. The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but Washington remains Taiwan's strongest ally and biggest arms supplier.

Legislation obliges the U.S. government to help Taiwan defend itself.

"Taiwan is a core issue in Sino-U.S. relations, and also an important political foundation for the bilateral ties," Qin said.

(Reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison and Huang Yan; Editing by Paul Tait)