China rejects new US invite to join arms control talks

China rejected a new US invitation to join arms control talks with Russia, complaining that Washington had continued to “pester” Beijing over the issue. President Trump’s administration has demanded that China take part in talks on a successor to the New START treaty, which caps the nuclear warheads of the US and Russia. Beijing said that it would only join the talks if the US reduced its arsenal to match China’s much smaller nuclear deterrent, prompting Washington to again issue a fresh invitation to the talks. —