WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- U.S.-China relations will be strained by Washington's move to sell arms to Taiwan and a meeting with the Dalai Lama, experts say.

The pending approval by U.S. President Barack Obama of the sale of Black Hawk helicopters and anti-missile batteries to Taiwan early this year, coupled with an upcoming meeting between Obama and the Dalai Lama -- whom Chinese officials consider to a separatist -- will likely put pressure on relations with Beijing, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

"I think it's going to be nasty," David Lampton, director of China studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, told the newspaper. That said, he added, "the U.S. and China need each other."

Ben Rhodes, a deputy U.S. national security adviser, told the Post, "We will have disagreements ... but we have demonstrated that we will work together on critical global and regional issues, such as economic recovery, nuclear proliferation and climate change, because doing so is in our mutual interest."

Source: UPI.com