China halts nuclear arms talks with US
China yesterday said it has suspended arms control and nuclear nonproliferation talks with Washington, blaming the diplomatic stall on ongoing US arms sales to Taiwan. The freeze comes just eight months after the two countries held their first formal dialogue on the matter in almost five years.
“Over the past weeks and months, despite China’s firm opposition and repeated protest, the US has continued to sell arms to Taiwan and done things that severely undermine China’s core interests and the mutual trust between China and the US,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian yesterday.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller called the decision “unfortunate” and said Washington would continue to bolster the security of allies and partners in the region in the face of Chinese threats.
“China has chosen to follow Russia’s lead in asserting that engagement on arms control can’t proceed when there are other challenges in the bilateral relationship. We think this approach undermines strategic stability. It increases the risk of arms race dynamics,” he said at a regular press briefing.
The Chinese announcement comes as US policy on Taiwan hangs in the balance ahead of the November election. Former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday called into question Washington’s long-standing policy of arming Taiwan, the democratic, autonomous island that China claims as its territory.
In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Trump accused the “immensely wealthy” Taiwan of swindling America out of its role in computer chips manufacturing, and suggested that it ought to “pay us for defence.” Taiwan has “done nothing” for America, Trump said.
The United States has a long-standing policy of providing arms and training to Taiwan, a relationship that the Biden administration and US lawmakers from both parties have sought to expand in recent years.
Congress in 2022 authorised the US government to spend US$2 billion (NZ$3.29 billion) in annual security funding for Taiwan from 2023 through 2027, and in April this year approved US$2 billion in security grants for the Asia-Pacific region as part of a larger supplemental national security spending bill.
Lawmakers and administration officials have also pledged to accelerate a years-long backlog of weapons sales to Taiwan that includes critical upgrades to its fleet of F-16 fighter jets. Last month, the State Department approved new sales of missiles and drones worth an estimated US$360 million.
All of this has drawn fierce criticism from Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to take Taiwan by force if necessary, and the People’s Liberation Army has executed a series of escalating military exercises around the island in recent years.
The Biden administration oversaw the rare talks between the two countries’ top nuclear arms officials in November as part of a broader shift to reopen high-level communication channels between Beijing and Washington.