https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/01/13/China-warns-Dutch-over-sub-sale-to-Taiwan/4712348210000/
PEKING -- In a blunt ultimatum, China warned the Netherlands Tuesday it will downgrade diplomatic relations if the Dutch do not cancel the multi-million dollar sale of two submarines to Taiwan, an act Peking denounced as provocative and unfriendly.
'If the Dutch government does not take immediate and concrete measures to cancel the sale, China will have no alternative but to make a strong response,' a government spokesman announced.
In the Hague, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Dutch Cabinet will reconsider the sale Friday but political sources said it is unlikely the government will go back on its November decision to grant an export licence to the struggling Rotterdam shipyard Rijn-Schelde Verolme.
A foreign ministry official said China has increased pressure on the Netherlands to cancel export of the two submarines and a variety of nuclear power station components to Taiwan.
'The Chinese government has pointed out that it regards the export order as a rejection of the 1972 communique in which the Netherlands recognized that Taiwan was a province of China,' he said.
A Chinese government spokesman earlier said the Dutch decision was 'an unfriendly act toward China.'
There was no immediate reaction from Taiwan, but official sources in Taipei called the move 'an indirect warning to the Reagan administration which faces an almost immediate decision whether to sell Taiwan advanced jet fighers or not.'
China has been waging a campaign against Reagan's campaign hint of a 'two-China' policy in which Washington would recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state instead of a province of China.
A Foreign Ministry announcement in Peking said Dutch Ambassador J. Kneppelhout has been warned that China would reduce its diplomatic ties with the Netherlands to charge d'affaires unless the submarine sale is canceled.
The submarines, of undisclosed tonnage and type, would be the first in the Taiwan navy, but would be used 'purely for defensive purposes' in the Taiwan straits, Taipei government sources said.
The Dutch agreed to sell Taiwan the two submarines, along with a power generating station, oil drilling and refining equipment, and other goods in a $500 million package deal.