CHINA has warned the US against interfering in its domestic affairs after it emerged that Washington is opening fresh economic talks with Taiwan.

"The US government must respect the 'One China' principle," Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday.

Growing official contacts between the US and Taiwan are a violation of China’s sovereignty, she said.

The Chinese island has become increasingly important to the US as it ratchets up a new cold war with Beijing.

In May Washington approved $180 million (£148m) in arms sales to Taiwan, to which China responded by announcing sanctions on Lockheed Martin in July.

Earlier this month health and human services secretary Alex M Azar II met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, becoming the most senior US official to visit Taiwan since Washington severed ties in 1979.

Ms Hua said that the US “should not underestimate China's willingness and determination to safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Taiwan has been governed separately from the mainland since 1949, when the defeated nationalist government fled there following the victory of communist forces led by Mao Zedong.

The island is not part of the United Nations and has diplomatic ties with just 16 of the 193 UN member states.