BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China on Sunday stepped up censure of planned U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, as Chinese Internet users vented anger with calls to boycott top U.S. exporter Boeing and other firms involved in the sales.

Although the Obama administration defended the package worth about $6.4 billion as necessary to boost regional security, the sharp reaction from Beijing threatened to deepen rifts between the world’s biggest and third-biggest economies.

China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said the United States had “damaged China’s national security and great task of reunification (with Taiwan),” the official Xinhua news agency reported early on Sunday.

Yang, traveling in Cyprus, said China and the United States had held many discussions about the arms sales, but Washington had ignored Beijing’s demand the sales be stopped.

BEIJING/WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) – China on Sunday stepped up censure of planned U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, as Chinese Internet users vented anger with calls to boycott top U.S. exporter Boeing and other firms involved in the sales.

Although the Obama administration defended the package worth about $6.4 billion as necessary to boost regional security, the sharp reaction from Beijing threatened to deepen rifts between the world’s biggest and third-biggest economies.

China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said the United States had “damaged China’s national security and great task of reunification (with Taiwan),” the official Xinhua news agency reported early on Sunday.

Yang, traveling in Cyprus, said China and the United States had held many discussions about the arms sales, but Washington had ignored Beijing’s demand the sales be stopped.

Beijing’s “Bird’s Nest” stadium, the tangled steel structure that starred as the focal point of the 2008 Summer Games, has been dressed up for winter in hopes of drawing post-Olympics visitors — and their cash.

Transformed into a winter-themed sports park, the stadium — which in its glory days packed some 80,000 cheering spectators into row after row of seats — now includes snowboard and ski slopes inside the inner ring, as well as a short toboggan tube, all covered in man-made snow.

But judging by the turnout on the opening weekend, when media representatives outnumbered paying visitors, this white Christmas wonderland faces a tough challenge to escape the stadium’s legacy as a big, white elephant.

The 180 yuan entrance fee (about $26) is one barrier to making the snowy playground a financial success. A young mother who brought her son said she reluctantly paid the fee only because the stadium has a special status among China’s famous cultural sites. Other visitors said they were taken aback by extra fees charged inside the venue.

BEIJING (Reuters) – Carmelo Anthony rained in 45 points to give the Denver Nuggets a 128-112 win over the Indiana Pacers in an NBA exhibition game in Beijing on Sunday.

While the Nuggets’ victory was assured well before the final buzzer, the near sellout crowd of some 15,000 remained enthusiastic to the end, a testament to the NBA’s goal of building global support while the league suffers declining revenues in the United States.

The two teams had played in Taipei three days earlier, with the Pacers coming out on top 126-104.

“After the game in Taiwan … we really wanted to come back and kind of redeem myself,” said Anthony, who was returning to the same Wukesong Arena where he helped the U.S. team win gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.