The state-run Xinhua News Agency cited the Defense Ministry as saying the suspension is due to the "severe harm" of the arms sales on the two countries' military relations.
China took a similar step in 2008 after the former Bush administration announced a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan — the most sensitive issue in U.S.-China relations. The latest arms sales could complicate the cooperation the U.S. seeks on issues ranging from Iran's nuclear program to the loosening of Internet controls, including a Google-China standoff over censorship.
China claims the self-governing Taiwan as its own, while the United States is Taiwan's most important ally and largest arms supplier. The U.S. government is bound by law to ensure the island is able to respond to Chinese threats.
Though Taiwan's ties with China have warmed considerably since Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou took office 20 months ago, Beijing has threatened to invade if the island ever formalizes its de facto independence. China has more than 1,000 ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan.
The arms sale, posted Friday on a Pentagon Web site, includes Black Hawk helicopters, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles, mine hunter ships and information technology. Congress has 30 days to comment before the plan goes forward. Lawmakers traditionally have supported such sales.
Upcoming high-level visits are likely to be affected by the China's suspension of military exchanges. Gen. Chen Bingde, the Chinese military's chief of the general staff, was due to visit the U.S., while U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, had planned to come to China.
A phone call to China's defense ministry seeking comment was not answered Saturday. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy, Susan Stevenson, said the embassy had no comment on the suspension of military visits.
The two powers are increasingly linked in security and economic issues, and Washington has sought to raise the profile and frequency of military visits with China and build trust with Beijing to convince it to reveal more about the aims of its massive military buildup.
But overall ties have been tense as President Barack Obama plans to meet with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, later this year. Further complications from the Taiwan arms sale could affect President Hu Jintao's expected visit to the U.S. this year, as well as talks on human rights that Obama and Hu had agreed to continue.