ESCALATING

China Cancels Security Summit With Defense Secretary James Mattis

Conference called off as DC-Beijing relations get chillier.

China has canceled an important annual security meeting with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in Beijing, sparking fears that President Trump’s trade and tariff war is starting to spill over, and could inflict significant damage on other areas of the Sino-American relationship, including Taiwan, arms sales, and the South China Sea. The summit cancellation comes after a ramping up of tension in military-related areas in recent days: Last week, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on a Chinese state military company for buying weapons from Russia; announced sales of $330 million in military equipment to Taiwan, the autonomous democratic nation that Beijing claims; and said that B-52 bombers had flown over the East China Sea and the South China Sea as part of its “continuous bomber presence in the region.”