China suspends nuclear talks with the US over arms sales to Taiwan

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller called the decision “regrettable” and said Washington would continue to strengthen the security of allies and partners in the region in the face of Chinese threats.

“China has chosen to follow Russia’s example and assert that engagement in arms control cannot continue when there are other challenges in bilateral relations. We believe this approach undermines strategic stability. It increases the risk of arms dynamics,” he said at a regular press conference on Wednesday.

The Chinese announcement comes as U.S. policy toward Taiwan hangs in the balance ahead of November’s elections. Former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday questioned Washington’s longstanding policy of arming Taiwan, the democratic, autonomous island that China claims as its territory.

In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Trump accused “immensely wealthy” Taiwan of cheating America out of its role in making computer chips and suggested it should “pay us for defense.” Taiwan has done “nothing” for America, Trump said.

The United States has long pursued a policy of supplying weapons and training to Taiwan, and the Biden administration and U.S. lawmakers from both parties have sought to expand that relationship in recent years.

Congress in 2022 authorized the U.S. government to spend $2 billion annually in security funding on Taiwan from 2023 to 2027, and in April of this year approved $2 billion in security grants for the Asia-Pacific region as part of a larger supplemental national security spending bill.

Lawmakers and government officials have also pledged to reduce a years-long backlog of arms sales to Taiwan, including key upgrades to its F-16 fighter jets. Last month, the State Department approved new sales of missiles and drones valued at an estimated $360 million.

All 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 conducted a series of military exercises around the island in recent years.

The Biden administration oversaw rare talks between the two countries’ top nuclear weapons officials in November as part of a broader initiative to reopen high-level communication channels between Beijing and Washington. While some Republican lawmakers have criticized the renewed engagement and accused the White House of caving to China, the administration insists that communication, especially between the two countries’ militaries, is critical to containing the threat of conflict.

“The goal was not to cover up our differences. Our goal was to clear up misunderstandings and misunderstandings to avoid big surprises,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at a Council on Foreign Relations event in January, where he discussed the reasons for the talks with Beijing.

But China’s refusal to continue engaging on the issue of nuclear proliferation in the face of US arms sales to Taiwan underscores the limits of the scope of that engagement as Biden heads toward a precarious election.

“The Chinese side has decided to postpone talks with the United States on a new round of consultations on arms control and non-proliferation. The responsibility lies entirely with the United States,” Lin said.

The State Department’s statement was China’s first public acknowledgement that talks had stalled, but US officials had already indicated earlier this year that Beijing’s engagement had waned.

In March, US Secretary of State Bonnie Jenkins said at a hearing before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that despite promising initial talks, Beijing had refused to hold follow-up meetings and had not provided any “substantive” responses to risk reduction proposals put forward by Washington.

She said the rapid buildup of China’s nuclear warheads – alongside Russia’s own considerable arsenal – raised concerns that the United States could soon face two “expansive and highly armed adversaries.”

A report released by the Pentagon last year estimated that China had more than 500 operational nuclear warheads and was likely to double that number by 2030. The United States has an arsenal of about The Federation of American Scientists estimates that there are 3,700 nuclear warheads.