Beijing suspends arms control consultations with the US

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said the decision was made because the US has ignored China’s staunch opposition and repeated protests, continued to sell arms to Taiwan, and taken a series of actions that undermine China’s core interests and U.S.-U.S. mutual trust.

Beijing said on Wednesday it would suspend talks with Washington on a new round of consultations on arms control and non-proliferation and called on Washington to respect its core interests.

US State Department spokesman Lin Jian made the remarks at a regular press conference after recent media reports quoted US officials as saying that China had rejected a follow-up meeting to discuss arms control and non-proliferation after the two sides met in November.

Lin said the decision was made because the US ignored China’s staunch opposition and repeated protests, continued to sell weapons to the Taiwan region, and took a series of actions that undermined China’s core interests and the country’s mutual trust with the US.

These US moves have seriously damaged the political climate for continued arms control consultations between the two sides, he said.

China is willing to maintain contact with the United States on international arms control issues on the basis of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation, Lin said.

“But the United States must respect China’s core interests and create the necessary conditions for bilateral dialogue and exchanges,” he added.

In another development, Lin announced on Wednesday that China would retaliate by imposing visa restrictions on U.S. officials who have fabricated lies about China’s human rights record and pushed for sanctions against China. Just days earlier, the U.S. State Department said it was “taking steps to impose visa restrictions on Chinese officials.”

Lin expressed China’s deep dissatisfaction and strong opposition to these measures, saying the US was spreading false information to discredit China’s human rights record and was abusing visa restrictions against Chinese officials.

“This constitutes serious interference in China’s internal affairs and a violation of international law and basic norms of international relations,” Lin said.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Human Rights Council unanimously adopted China’s report on the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review.

“This clearly shows that the international community highly recognizes China’s achievements in protecting human rights,” the spokesman said.

The US, on the other hand, is not in a position to point the finger at the human rights situation in other countries, Lin said.

He called on the United States to reflect on its own human rights violations and address its own human rights problems instead of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and sanctioning them under the pretext of human rights.