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The Pentagon received a notice from the People's Liberation Army that an important meeting originally planned would be put on hold. Since the US is so keen on selling arms to Taiwan and making dollars, and has no sincerity in the talks, let's not meet for the time being.

On July 17, at the regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian stated that because the United States has continued to advance arms sales to Taiwan for some time, ignoring and damaging China's core interests, and undermining the political foundation and atmosphere for continued arms control consultations between the two countries, it has decided to suspend the new round of arms control and non-proliferation consultations with the United States.

What Lin Jian meant by this statement is that the United States has gone too far on issues related to Taiwan recently and has repeatedly ignored China's protests, so the China-US military control and non-proliferation consultations that began in November last year were suspended to express its dissatisfaction.

Negotiations on arms control have always been regarded as the most difficult negotiations in diplomacy, not only because of the significance of armaments themselves, but also because the chain of suspicion makes it difficult for all participants to build trust in other countries, especially for major powers that are in a hostile state.

Take the United States and the Soviet Union as an example. During the Cold War, they fought for 40 to 50 years, but only reached a few arms control agreements, most of which were aimed at weapons that neither side could easily use.nuclear weaponThe only treaty that has some significance is the Intermediate-Range Missile Treaty signed in 1987 at the end of the Cold War, which restricts both sides from developing and equipping medium-range missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers.

After entering the 21st century, the protagonists of international arms control negotiations have become China and the United States. It is currently difficult to break out of this rut, but fortunately there has been some progress.

In November 2023, after China and the United States launched arms control and non-proliferation consultations in Washington, it was seen by the outside world as a rare positive signal that the two major powers have established a rare degree of mutual trust, which means that both countries agree that mankind should not be unrestrained on the path of self-destruction.

It is not difficult to predict that the senior US government officials who still adhere to the zero-sum game mentality of the Cold War still truly want China to obey US interests. However, the United States now has few cards left in its hand. In order to block mainland China, it has played the Taiwan card, which is specifically manifested in arms sales to Taiwan.

It should be pointed out that the card of arms sales to Taiwan has undergone several changes. From the perspective of the national interests of the United States, it is natural to hope that after being armed, Taiwan Province can not only contain mainland China, but also sacrifice for the United States when necessary, and by the way, it can also squeeze the fat of the people of Taiwan Province.

However, now that the PLA has established its absolute advantage within the first island chain, the US military itself is busy withdrawing to the second island chain, not to mention the Taiwan military picking up second-hand scraps from the US. Therefore, today's arms sales to Taiwan are nothing more than the cash-strapped US government trying to squeeze the last penny out of Taiwan Province.

Although arms sales to Taiwan are becoming increasingly lackluster and even abstract, the political significance of this matter is still extremely harmful to China. Therefore, after the announcement of a new round of arms sales to Taiwan, China announced sanctions against six US defense companies involved in this round of arms sales to Taiwan, including Anduril, Maritime Tactical Systems, and Rim of the Pacific Defense Company, as well as the presidents, chairmen, CEOs and other management of these companies.

However, what is even more meaningful is that Trump, who was assassinated a few days ago, acted as if he were the president before he became the president and made comments on issues related to Taiwan.

On July 16, Bloomberg published an exclusive interview with Trump. When talking about the Taiwan issue, he said, "Taiwan has indeed taken away 100% of our chip business. I think Taiwan should pay protection fees to the United States."

Objectively speaking, although there are growing calls for Trump to return to the White House, he is not yet president after all. His comments on political issues now show that he is determined to regain the presidency. If he really returns to the White House as he wishes, the United States will inevitably further deepen arms sales to Taiwan, provoke military confrontation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, and damage China's core interests without blinking an eye.

What’s worse is that the Taiwan authorities readily accepted Trump’s blatant demands for protection money. On July 17, after Trump’s remarks were exposed, the head of the Taiwan Executive Yuan, Zhuo Rongtai, responded. In a simple summary, he responded to Trump’s request, saying that “Taiwan is willing to increase the defense budget”, which translates to “If the President asks us to buy, we will buy, money is not a problem”.

As soon as this statement was made, TSMC's stock price fell, with an intraday drop of more than 2%. The market also fell by about 0.4% on the same day. Considering that TSMC will release its second-quarter earnings report on July 18, it can be said that this world's largest semiconductor company is facing a life-and-death test. Obviously, Trump is not satisfied with TSMC's investment of more than 40 billion US dollars to build a factory in the United States, and he also asked Taiwan Province and the Taiwan authorities to spit out more funds to alleviate the economic difficulties of the United States.

Although it is still a question of money, I believe that neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party, neither Biden nor Trump will give in on the Taiwan issue. The US policy toward Taiwan will not change fundamentally at least for some time to come. The purpose is still to try to block the Chinese mainland through the Taiwan card, and even turn Taiwan Province into the next Ukraine to hold China back, giving the declining US hegemony a breath of fresh air.

Compared with the US government, which has no fairness, justice or sincerity at all, China has only suspended arms control negotiations and non-proliferation consultations, which is very restrained. When the PLA's aircraft carrier strike group arrives on the US west coast and the Atlantic, when China establishes military cooperation mechanisms with more countries, and when China sells off US Treasury bonds, it will be too late for the White House to regret.