China has suspended negotiations on nuclear non-proliferation and arms control with the United States in protest against Washington’s arms sales to the self-ruled island of Taiwan.
The US called Beijing’s decision on Wednesday “unfortunate”, while analysts said the move deals a potentially serious setback to global arms-control efforts.
China and the US began nuclear weapons discussions in November as part of a bid to ease mistrust ahead of a summit between Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden.
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”.
A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday said the US’s arms sales to Taiwan, a territory that it claims, had “seriously compromised the political atmosphere for continuing the arms-control consultations”.
“Consequently, the Chinese side has decided to hold off discussion with the US on a new round of consultations on arms control and non-proliferation,” Lin Jian, the spokesperson, told a regular news briefing in Beijing.
“The responsibility fully lies with the US,” he said.
Lin added that China was willing to maintain communication on international arms control, but said the US “must respect China’s core interests and create necessary conditions for dialogue and exchange”.
The US switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 but has remained Taiwan’s most important partner and biggest arms supplier, sparking repeated condemnations from China.
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