China halts nuclear arms talks with US over Taiwan support

Beijing said the US’s weapons sales to Taiwan has ‘compromised the political atmosphere’ for continued talks on nuclear non-proliferation.

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”.