On Sep. 22, 2011, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who was attending the General Debate of the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York, delivered a speech on China-U.S. relations to the members of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the United States-China Business Council (USCBC).

Yang expounded China's views on China-U.S. relations, with an emphasis on the solemn position of the Chinese government on U.S.'s arms sales to Taiwan. Yang said that China-U.S. relations not only relate to the well-being of the two peoples, but also affect the future of the world. Maintaining and developing China-U.S. relations is a bounden duty of both parties. Yang stressed that respect for each other's core interests is the prerequisite principle for China-U.S. cooperation. The Taiwan issue involves the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China, concerns the core interests of China, and affects the national feelings of the 1.3-billion Chinese people. It has always been the most important and most sensitive core issue in China-U.S. relations. Despite of China's firm opposition and in defiance of the improving relations across the Taiwan Straits and the peaceful development across the Taiwan Straits, the United States has again made a wrong decision to sell a large quantity of arms to Taiwan. The erroneous practice of the U.S. has seriously violated the three China-U.S. joint communiqués, especially the August 17 Communiqué. It is a gross interference in China's internal affairs, which will do serious harm to China's national security and cause severe damage to China's peaceful reunification and China-U.S. relations. It also runs counter to the solemn commitments the U.S. had made. The Chinese side expresses its resolute opposition.

Yang stressed that the U.S. must fully and clearly understand the sensitivity and the severity of arms sales to Taiwan, take China's solemn position seriously, and correct the wrongdoing of selling arms to Taiwan. The U.S. must immediately revoke the wrong decision, stop arms sales to Taiwan, cease the military ties with Taiwan, and take concrete actions to safeguard the overall situation of China-U.S. relations and the peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits.