For six decades now, Taiwan has been where the simmering distrust between China and America most risks boiling over. In 1986 Deng Xiaoping called it the "one obstacle in Sino-us relations". So there was something almost ritualistic aboutrnthe Chinese government's protestations this week that it was shocked, shocked and angered by America's decision to sell Taiwan $6 billion-worth of weaponry. Under the Taiwan Relations Act, passed in 1979, all American administrations must help arm Taiwan so that it can defend itself.
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