The future of Sino-U.S. relations will be decided by whether the U.S. side handles the Taiwan issue properly, because it concerns China's core interests, Liu Xiaokun, commander of the Guangxi Military Area Command, said on March 5.

"If the U.S. continues to sell arms to Taiwan, Sino-U.S. relations will definitely be jeopardized," said, Liu, who is a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), in an exclusive interview with China.org.cn on the first day of the NPC session.

"The U.S. administration should at least try to show some understanding of our stance when making decisions on Taiwan," said Liu.

The relationship between China and the U.S. is the important bilateral relationship in the world, Liu said. Ties will probably remain stable, neither too good nor too bad, because the two countries have been growing more and more dependent on each other as a result of globalization, he added.

When asked to comment on the joint U.S.-South Korea and U.S.-Japan military drills, Liu said "No country can be expected to remain positive when another country is flexing its military muscles around its territory."

2010 was a rough year for Sino-U.S. relations. China cut its military ties with the U.S. and called off a planned visit by U.S. defense chief Robert Gates after the U.S. decided to sell 6.4 billion U.S. dollars worth of arms to Taiwan.

Military ties began to improve when Chinese defense minister Liang Guanglie met with Gates in Hanoi in October. A rescheduled visit to China by Gates, and Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to the U.S., further improved ties between the two countries.