China’s defence ministry is insisting that full military-to-military exchanges with the US cannot resume unless Washington scraps plans to sell more than $6bn worth of advanced weapons to Taiwan and stops contacts with the democratic island’s armed forces.

The strong line from Major General Qian Lihua, director of the ministry’s foreign affairs office, suggests the Chinese military is determined to ensure that the US pays a price for a decision last month to sell Taipei arms, including Patriot air defence missiles, Apache helicopters and F-16 spare parts.