China has suspended talks with the United States on arms control and non-proliferation consultations, with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blaming Washington for continuing to engage in defence sales to Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a rogue province.
In an article published on the website of China’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) on 17 July, citing state-run news outlet CGTN, it was revealed that China had “decided to suspend talks with the United States” on holding a new round of consultations over arms control and non-proliferation.
The responsibility for the suspension “lies squarely on the US side”, said Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to the MND article.
Among the reasons given for the move was that the US had “ignored China's resolute opposition and repeated representations, continued to engage in arms sales to China's Taiwan region, and taken a series of negative measures that undermine China's core interests and hurt the mutual trust between the two sides”, Lin Jian was quoted as saying.
Further, the US “must respect China’s core interests and create the necessary conditions for dialogue and exchange between the two sides”, the spokesperson stated.
China and the US held consultations on arms control and non-proliferation in Washington, DC, in November 2023, read the MND-hosted article.
Background to a new US-China crisis
A backlash against US arms sales to Taiwan has been growing, following a mid-June decision by the US State Department to approval a possible Foreign Military Sale (FMS) of more than 1,000 advanced loitering munitions, comprised of 720 Switchblade 300 systems and 291 ALTIUS 600M-V systems in a deal worth in excess of $360m.
Loitering munitions have been used to devastating effect by both sides in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, as well as during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2023.
In late-June China’s MND asked the US to “implement its commitment to not support ‘Taiwan independence’, stop arming China’s Taiwan region in any form and take practical actions to maintain stable relations between the two countries and the two militaries”.
The potential sale of the loitering munitions is the latest in a series of contracts revealed to have been placed in 2024 for US weapons and defence-related capabilities for Taiwan.
On 5 June the US State Department approved the possible $280m FMS of spare parts of Taiwan’s US-origin F-16 fighters.
Earlier, it was reported on 23 February that the United States approved an FMS to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States worth $75m, in relation to Taiwan Advanced Tactical Data Link System Upgrade Planning as well as additional equipment and support services.
In February 2024 the US Department of Defense awarded a contract modification to Raytheon, an RTX subsidiary, to produce and deliver 50 Joint Standoff Weapon air-to-surface missiles (AGM-154 Block III C) for Taiwan.
China starts 2024 with sanctions on Western industry
The opening salvos of what is turning into a year of US-China industrial confrontation were fired in early January, when China announced sanctions on five defence firms over weapons sales to Taiwan, as Beijing sought to ramp up efforts to disrupt US influence over the island ahead of Taiwan’s elections the same month.
The five companies named were BAE Systems Land and Armament, Alliant Techsystems Operation, AeroVironment, ViaSat and Data Link Solutions.
The Taiwan election saw its pro-independence government win an unprecedented third term in office. This followed a period of high tensions between Taiwan and China, with an increasingly hawkish China increasing its incursions into Taiwanese airspace and participating in naval exercises inside Taiwanese waters.
Additional reporting from Andrew Salerno-Garthwaite, Harry McNeil, John Hill, and Alex Blair.
