BEIJING — China said on Tuesday it has complained to the United States about a weapons aid package to Taiwan, urging Washington to refrain from going further down a “wrong and dangerous” path.

The US unveiled an aid package for Taiwan worth up to $345 million on Friday as Congress authorized up to $1 billion worth of weapons aid for the island as a part of the 2023 budget.

A spokesperson for China’s defense ministry, Tan Kefei, said the US must stop all forms of “military collusion” with Taiwan.

“The Taiwan issue concerns China’s core interests and is a red line that cannot be crossed in China-US relations,” Tan said in a statement.

Beijing claims the democratically governed island as its own territory, and repeatedly warns against any forms of “official exchanges” between Washington and Taipei. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims and says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

The United States, Taiwan’s most important arms supplier, is bound by law to provide it with the means to defend itself, despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties and the anger such weapons sales generate in Beijing.

The top US general said in July it and allies should speed up weapons delivery to Taiwan in coming years to help the island defend itself.

China’s military has also been flexing its muscles around the island, recently sending dozens of fighters, bombers and other aircraft including drones into the skies to Taiwan’s south, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry.

China’s People’s Liberation Army is paying close attention to the situation in the Taiwan Strait and is always on high alert, Tan said. — Reuters

COPENHAGEN/STOCKHOLM — More Koran burnings took place in Sweden and Denmark on Monday as the governments of the two Nordic countries said they were examining ways to legally limit such acts in a bid to de-escalate growing tensions with several Muslim countries.

Denmark and Sweden have seen several protests in recent weeks in which copies of the Koran were burned, or otherwise damaged, prompting outrage in Muslim countries and demands that the Nordic governments put a stop to the burnings.

The Danish government said on Sunday it would seek to find a “legal tool” that could enable authorities to intervene in such protests, if deemed to entail “significant negative consequences for Denmark, not least with regard to security.”

“The fact that we are signaling both in Denmark and abroad that we are working on it will hopefully help de-escalate the problems we are facing,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told journalists following a meeting with foreign policy speakers of parliament on Monday.

“It is not because we feel pressured to do so, but it is our political analysis that it is in the best interest of all of us,” Rasmussen said. “We shouldn’t just sit and wait for this to explode.”

Even so, Koran burnings took place in both countries on Monday. In Stockholm, an Iraqi refugee behind several protests in recent weeks appeared to burn a copy of the Koran outside the Swedish parliament. In Denmark, anti-Muslim protesters burned the Koran outside the Saudi Arabian embassy in Copenhagen.

The Nordic countries have deplored the burnings of the Koran but cannot prevent it under constitutional laws protecting freedom of speech.

However, both governments have now said they are considering legal changes that would allow authorities to prevent further burnings in special situations.

The Swedish government said this month it is examining a similar solution, but right-wing parties in both countries have denounced the initiatives, with some saying freedom of speech cannot be compromised.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said on Monday that he had sent letters to all 57 countries in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to explain Sweden’s right to assembly and condemned Islamophobic acts.

OIC foreign ministers convened in an extraordinary session on Monday to discuss the recent developments where it strongly condemned the Koran burnings.

It also said in a statement after the meeting ended that it called upon member states to take appropriate action, whether political or economic, in countries where the Koran is being desecrated.

After the meeting, Mr. Billstrom and his Danish counterpart Rasmussen separately wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that they would continue their dialogue with the OIC.

Mr. Billstrom also wrote in his post that Sweden would study the resolutions and recommendations made by the OIC carefully. — Reuters