According to a Reuters report posted yesterday, the U.S. and China resumed semi-official talks on nuclear arms in March for the first time in five years. These discussions are known as Track Two, involving delegations made up of former officials and other experts with authoritative knowledge of their governments’ policies, though they’re not involved in setting those policies.
According to the report, members of the Chinese delegation 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 by Reuters for the first time.
