Arms control consultations with U.S. halted

Beijing said on Wednesday it has decided to suspend discussions with Washington on holding a new round of arms control and nonproliferation consultations, and called on the latter to respect its core interests.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian made the remarks at a regular news conference, as recent media reports quoted United States officials as saying that China has declined a follow-on meeting to consult on arms control and nonproliferation after both sides met in November.

Lin said that the decision was made because the U.S. has disregarded China's firm opposition and repeated protests, kept selling arms to the Taiwan region and taken a series of actions undermining China's core interests and its mutual trust with the U.S..

These moves by the U.S. "have seriously compromised the political atmosphere for both sides to continue their consultations on arms control", he said.

China stands ready to maintain communications with the U.S. on international arms control issues on the basis of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, Lin said.

"But the U.S. must respect China's core interests and create necessary conditions for bilateral dialogues and exchanges," he added.

In another development, Lin announced on Wednesday that China will adopt reciprocal visa restrictions on U.S. officials who have concocted lies about China's human rights situation and pushed for sanctions against China, days after the U.S. Department of State said it "is taking steps to impose visa restrictions" on Chinese officials.

Voicing China's strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the moves, Lin said the U.S. is spreading disinformation to smear China's human rights situation and abusing visa restrictions on Chinese officials.

"This constitutes serious interference in China's internal affairs and a violation of international law and basic norms guiding international relations," Lin said.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Human Rights Council unanimously adopted China's report on the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review.

"This fully shows that the international community highly recognizes China's achievements in protecting human rights," the spokesman said.

The U.S., on the other hand, is in no position to point fingers at other countries' human rights situation, Lin said.

He called on the U.S. to reflect on its own human rights violations and address its own human rights issues, instead of interfering in other countries' internal affairs and sanctioning them under the pretext of human rights.