Following the Obama visit, Chinese propaganda organs said the term "core interests" was being used as “a new code phrase meaning China’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan, Xinjiang and Tibet.”
The phrase also appeared in a joint China-Australia statement.
Obama broke diplomatic precedent while in China by asserting that Tibet is part of China. Previously, Tibet’s status as an independent nation prior to China’s military invasion has been left ambiguous.
China's main use of "core interests," however, has been in opposing U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
“Despite such a promise, [Obama] went back upon his words,” Gen. Luo Yuan Luo told state-run Ta Kung Pao newspaper. “The arms sales to Taiwan have seriously harmed China's core interests.”
Luo said China should follow Russia’s path for opposing U.S. missile defenses in Eastern Europe by announcing it would deploy short-range nuclear-capable missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
Luo suggested that China could strengthen its national defense by building missile defenses.