China Suspends Nuclear Talks With America to Protest Arms Sales to Taiwan

Whoops!

Hope we don’t end up in a nuclear war!

(jk I support nuclear war.)

The Guardian:

China has suspended talks over arms control and nuclear proliferation with the US in protest against arms sales to Taiwan, the democratically governed island aligned with Washington that China claims as its own territory.

The decision, announced by China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday, halts the early nuclear-arms talks in a period of growing tensions between China and the US, with both US presidential candidates calling for increased trade restrictions and efforts to contain Chinese influence in east Asia.

The US is Taiwan’s main international partner and largest arms supplier. The House of Representatives in June approved $500m in foreign military financing for Taiwan to strengthen military deterrence against China, along with $2bn in loans and loan guarantees. The US also approved $300m in spare and repair parts for Taiwan’s F-16 fighter jets.

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that the US had continued to sell arms to Taiwan despite “strong Chinese opposition and repeated negotiations”.

Lin Jian

He added: “Consequently, the Chinese side has decided to hold off discussion with the US on a new round of consultations on arms control and nonproliferation. The responsibility fully lies with the US.”

Lin said China was willing to maintain communication on international arms control, but that the US “must respect China’s core interests and create necessary conditions for dialogue and exchange”.

Uncle Sam is a schoolyard bully.

But he’s been bullying the schoolyard for 80 years. After he went to middle school, high school, college, and so on, he just kept going to bully the elementary school kids.

Now he’s a 90-year-old man bullying 10-year-olds, and the 10-year-olds are starting to think they can probably just overwhelm the bastard.