China cancels security talks with the U.S.

BEIJING — China canceled an important annual security meeting planned for mid-October with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in Beijing, saying a senior Chinese military officer would not be available to meet him, a U.S. official said on Sunday.

The decision to withdraw from the high-level encounter, known as the diplomatic and security dialogue, was the latest sign of bad blood between China and the United States and capped a week of tit-for-tat actions by both nations as they settled into a newly chilly relationship.

The cancellation of the dialogue, an event that China until recently had advertised as a productive way for the two sides to talk, showed how quickly the tensions over an escalating trade war have infected other parts of the relationship, particularly vital strategic concerns including Taiwan, arms sales and the South China Sea.

A senior U.S. foreign policy official summarized the administration’s attitude to China last week, telling a crowd at the celebration of national day at the Chinese Embassy in Washington that the United States was intent on competing with China — brittle language that is usually absent from formal events.

“For us, in the United States, competition is not a four-letter word,” the senior official, Matt Pottinger, who deals with China on the National Security Council, said in his remarks.

Vice President Mike Pence is expected to deliver a major speech this week describing the administration’s negative views of China’s international behavior over the last number of years, including what it sees as efforts to influence U.S. domestic politics. The speech will almost certainly further dampen the increasingly frosty ties between Washington and Beijing.

In that spirit, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on a Chinese state military company for buying weapons from Russia, and announced sales of $330 million in military equipment to Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that Beijing claims as its own.

President Donald Trump, who has been battering China over trade, turned to a new front last week, accusing Beijing of interfering in the approaching midterm elections by buying major advertising space in an Iowa newspaper.

China told the Trump administration on Friday that a senior Chinese military official would not be meeting Mattis, the U.S. official said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity per diplomatic norm.