U.S. and China held first informal nuclear talks in five years in March

Military vehicles carrying DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles travel past Tiananmen Square during a military parade in Beijing in October 2019. | REUTERS

by GREG TORODE, GERRY DOYLE AND LAURIE CHEN
June 21, 2024

HONG KONG – The United States and China resumed semi-official nuclear arms talks in March for the first time in five years, with Beijing's representatives telling U.S. counterparts that they would not resort to atomic threats over Taiwan, according to two American delegates who attended.

The Chinese representatives offered reassurances after their U.S. interlocutors raised concerns that China might use, or threaten to use, nuclear weapons if it faced defeat in a conflict over Taiwan.

"They told the U.S. side that they were absolutely convinced that they are able to prevail in a conventional fight over Taiwan without using nuclear weapons," said scholar David Santoro, the U.S. organizer of the Track Two talks, the details of which are being reported for the first time.