China says halted nuclear arms talks with US

BEIJING

China said Wednesday it had suspended negotiations with the United States on nuclear non-proliferation and arms control in response to Washington's weapons sales to Taiwan.

The U.S. and China in November held rare talks on nuclear arms control, part of a bid to ease mistrust ahead of a summit between leader Joe Biden and Xi Jinping.

Further dialogue had not been publicly announced since, with a White House official in January urging Beijing to respond "to some of our more substantive ideas on risk reduction."

But the Chinese Foreign Ministry yesterday said recent U.S. sales of arms to self-ruled Taiwan were "seriously undermining the political atmosphere for continued arms control consultations 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," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.

"For this reason, China has decided to suspend negotiations with the United States on a new round of arms control and non-proliferation consultations," he added.

The Pentagon in a congressionally mandated report last October said that China was developing its nuclear arsenal more quickly than the United States had earlier anticipated.

China possessed more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023 and is likely to have more than 1,000 by 2030, it said.