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WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The United States had another downgrade of its credit on Wednesday when it announced a deal to upgrade F-16 A/B fighter jets for Taiwan, in a move that once again broke its public pledge to seek steady ties with China.

This move, which is set to damage the China-U.S. relations, is just another downgrade of the U.S. credit after the rating agency Standard & Poor's cut its credit rating on its debts problem in August. The only difference this time is that this downgrade was imposed by the U.S. government itself.

The U.S. government took the action despite appeals and protests from China, which rightfully opposes the blatant U.S. intervention of its internal affairs through continued arms sales to Taiwan, a part of China as recognized by the U.S.

The deal not only contradicts the U.S. government's public pledge to seek stable, strong and enduring relationship with China, but also broke its previous promise to phase out its arms sales to the island.

By announcing the deal, the U.S. chose to ignore China's clear stand on the Taiwan issue: it seeks peaceful reunification of China and will never use forces against Taiwan as along as the island does not announce independence or seek to split from China.

The U.S. bases its arms sales to Taiwan on a fallacy of protecting the island from so-called military threat from the Chinese mainland, but, as a matter of fact, Taiwan is facing no threat now because peace is prevailing across the Taiwan Strait. The cross-Strait ties have been steadily improving for the past three years through regular peaceful consultations, signing of trade deals and increased people-to-people exchanges.

Moreover, the U.S. government once again broke a promise it made in the three joint communiques it signed with China, especially the one reached on Aug. 17, 1982, in which Washington agrees to gradually scale back and eventually stop its sale of arms to Taiwan.

Regrettably, the promise has never been honored by the U.S. government in the past three decades. On the contrary, Washington has been accelerating its arms sales to the island in recent years, either in quality or quantity.

The latest arms sales deal clearly demonstrated the hypocrisy of the U.S. China policy, which is solely responsible for the fluctuation of bilateral relations. No matter how hard China has tried to stabilize its ties with the U.S., Washington will readily break its promises to serve its own interests.

It is noteworthy that the deal came shortly after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit to China in August, which he described as showing the U.S. government's "absolute total commitment to a strong and enduring positive relationship with China." Biden stressed that the U.S. fully recognizes that issues related to Taiwan and Tibet are part of China's core interests.

While the U.S. only pays lip service to what it promised to China on the Taiwan issue, China has been making genuine efforts to develop a strong, sustained and positive relationship with the U.S. and doing its best to seek peace across the Taiwan Strait.

Thanks to China's efforts, the China-U.S. relations have been improving significantly this year since Chinese President Hu Jintao's U.S. visit in January, followed by a flurry of exchanges of important visits and dialogues.

During all these contacts, China was clear and consistent in demanding the U.S. government respect China's core interests, especially on the Taiwan issue. However, China's good will and sincerity both fell on deaf ears of the U.S., which apparently lacks credit as a responsible partner.

Undoubtedly, one reason that led to the U.S. decision on selling arms to Taiwan is that it can make a big profit from the deal, for which the U.S. weapons industry and pro-Taiwan lobbyist groups have been vehemently lobbying.

During times of economic downturn and under pressure of the upcoming elections, the temptation for the U.S. government and Congress to approve such a deal, which can create tens of thousands of new jobs, is bigger than usual.

Another reason that the U.S. sticks to arms sales to Taiwan lies in the belief by many U.S. politicians, who are suffering from a paranoia about China's rise, that it will help contain China to prevent it from becoming a threat to the U.S. in future.

Some U.S. politicians and conservative hawks within the U.S. government always take it for granted that China is virtually helpless on the U.S. intervention of its internal affairs, because the U.S. as the sole superpower can do anything at its will to serve its own interests.

But, be warned, China's unshakable determination to defend its sovereign and territorial integrity should not be underestimated, and in the long run, the final reunification of China is unstoppable, no matter what the U.S. does or will do.