China announced it would halt arms control and non-proliferation negotiations agreed upon at the U.S.-China summit in November last year. This move comes in response to the U.S. selling weapons to Taiwan, which China claims infringes on its core interests.
Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, announced at a regular briefing yesterday, “China has decided to suspend negotiations with the United States on a new round of arms control and non-proliferation consultations.” He explained that the sales of arms to self-ruled Taiwan were “seriously undermining the political atmosphere for continued arms control consultation between the two sides.”
“The U.S. has… continued its arms sales to Taiwan and taken a series of negative actions that seriously damage China’s core interests and undermine political mutual trust, he added.
Previously, the U.S. and China held arms control and non-proliferation negotiations in Washington DC on November 6th last year, and the representative attendees were Mallory Stewart, Assistant Secretary for Defense Policy in the Bureau of Arms Control, and Sun Xiaobo, Director-General of the Department of Arms Control of the Foreign Ministry. It was the first face-to-face meeting to discuss nuclear weapons control and other issues in five years since 2019. Later that month, U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping of China held a summit in San Francisco, agreeing to open communication channels in the military field. The two leaders also agreed to push for negotiations in various areas such as economy, finance, export control, Asia-Pacific affairs, maritime, arms control, non-proliferation, diplomatic policy planning, and joint working groups. However, no additional meetings have been officially announced since then.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the U.S. possesses about 3,700 nuclear warheads, second only to Russia (about 4,500). China is estimated to have 410. The U.S. Department of Defense previously stated, “DoD estimates that the PRC possessed more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023. It estimates that the PRC will probably have over 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030,” adding that “Beijing has accelerated its nuclear expansion.”
The conflict between the U.S. and China over Taiwan is escalating. This year, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has repeatedly announced sanctions against U.S. military companies and executives involved in arms sales to Taiwan, including entry bans and asset freezes, in January and from April to this month. The U.S. continues to support Taiwan militarily, including approving a plan last month to sell new weapons to Taiwan, including missiles and suicide drones, worth $360 million.
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