Taiwan | featured news

China has said it will impose unspecified sanctions on U.S. firms selling weapons to Taiwan in retaliation for the U.S. announcement that it planned to sell $6.4 billion of arms to Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province.

Taiwan said on Friday it would buy up to 20 military helicopters from a European manufacturer less than a week after Washington infuriated China by proposing a $6.4 billion arms deal for the island which Beijing claims as its own.

The Chinese government Saturday announced a series of harsh retaliatory measures in protest of the Pentagon's $6-billion arms sale to Taiwan, including a suspension of security exchanges and threatened sanctions on U.S. companies selling to Taiwan.

China said Saturday it had suspended military exchanges with the United States over Washington's $6.4-billion arms deal with Taiwan, the territory that Beijing claims as its own.

The move is sure to enrage China and could possibly complicate the Obama administration’s push to get Beijing’s cooperation on Iran.

A strong earthquake rocks parts of Taiwan, rattling buildings in Taipei, although no serious casualties are reported yet.

The country's second storm in eight days cuts across the northeastern tip of the main island of Luzon and heads toward Taiwan. Typhoon Parma slammed into the Philippines today, ripping off roofs, toppling power pylons and swelling rivers in the country's mountainous north.

A 22-year-old man is arrested after stabbing a nurse during a bungled robbery and returning to profess his love, Taiwanese police say.

The Dalai Lama -- on a visit to Taiwan that includes prayers for recent typhoon victims -- has refuted China's claims that he is there for political reasons.

Two strong earthquakes hit between Japan's southernmost islands and the coast of Taiwan on Monday, both briefly prompting tsunami warnings, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said.