Beijing protests US-Taiwan missile mix-up

China’s foreign ministry expressed "strong displeasure" with the US over an accidental delivery of missile fuses to Taiwan in 2006, AP reported. Comments posted on the ministry’s website called for a thorough investigation by US authorities in order to prevent "negative effects and disastrous consequences created by this incident," spokesman Qin Gang. The Pentagon admitted Tuesday that it had mistakenly sent four cone-shaped fuses for intercontinental ballistic missiles to Taiwan in August 2006 instead of helicopter batteries ordered by the island’s military. A Taiwan defense official said the missile fuses were returned to the US once the mistake was discovered. US weapon sales to Taiwan are believed to be among the reasons Beijing rejected port calls to Hong Kong by the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier group last fall.