China has voiced strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition on Friday after the United States State Department approved the sales of F-16 spare parts and relevant services to Taiwan.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Friday that the US arm sales to China's Taiwan region "seriously damages China-US relations and the peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and sends a seriously wrong signal to the separatist forces seeking 'Taiwan independence'."

The arm sales are a serious violation of the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiqués, and it constitutes a grave violation of China's sovereignty and security interests, she said.

"We will take strong and resolute measures to defend our national sovereignty and territorial integrity," she said.

Facts have proved again and again that the biggest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the greatest damage to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait comes from the separatist moves of the forces seeking "Taiwan independence" and the connivance of US-led external forces, she said.

"'Taiwan independence' is as incompatible with cross-Strait peace as fire is with water," she said.

The Democratic Progressive Party authorities' attempt to seek independence through the use of force and the US' persistence in helping advance that agenda by arming Taiwan are moving against the trend of history, which will only aggravate tensions in the Taiwan Strait and are doomed to fail, Mao said.

The spokeswoman emphasized that the Taiwan question is at the core of China's core interests and is the first red line that cannot be crossed in China-US relations.

She called on the US side to comply with the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiqués, to stop arm sales to Taiwan and sever military contacts with Taiwan, to stop creating tensions in the Taiwan Strait, to stop jeopardizing peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and to refrain from going farther down the erroneous and dangerous path.