Based on this understanding, Beijing has been working with Washington on various bilateral, regional and global issues, and their collaboration has significantly benefited both sides, as well as the rest of the world.

Nevertheless, the US has neither respected China's legitimate rights bestowed by the UN Charter nor kept its promise on the Taiwan question. Washington's actions have made it an untrustworthy partner and undercut its legitimacy as a world power.

While the US keeps telling others to abide by international law, it itself is unwilling to abide by the UN Charter. To justify its weapons sales to Taiwan, it has resorted to the "Taiwan Relations Act", its domestic public law, which conflicts with the principle of established international norms.

China has been suggesting to the US to build a "new type of major power relationship", but apart from its occasionally positive reaction, Washington has not done much.

Since such a relationship should be based on the principle of non-confrontation, and mutual respect and mutual benefit, the US can at least learn to treat China as a rising power, if not a major power. The US should know that by preferring to confront China, it will also cause harm to itself.

The mainland authorities have announced sanctions against those entities that conduct arms deals with Taiwan, which means they will lose ongoing businesses with the mainland and potentially lose more opportunities to tap one of the top markets in the world.

China reserves the right to intensify the sanctions later. And even though this would reduce mutual benefit across the Pacific, China as a rising power is willing to bear the cost in order to punish those who don't care about others' legitimate interests.

The author is a professor at and associate dean of the Institute of International Studies, Fudan University, Shanghai.