BEIJING – China has expressed firm opposition to a recent US governmentreport describing Beijing as a potential nuclear rival, also calling onWashington to reduce its much larger nuclear arsenal and join in efforts topromote regional stability.
Casting China as “a major challenge to US interests in Asia,” the 74-pageUS Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) report said the US strategy for China wasdesigned to prevent Beijing from mistakenly concluding that any use ofnuclear weapons, however limited, was acceptable.
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang condemned the US report onSunday and said his country exercised utmost restraint in developingnuclear capabilities and kept its nuclear arsenal at the “minimum level”required for national security.
The official Xinhua news agency cited Ren as saying that Beijing wouldresolutely stick to the peaceful development of nuclear weapons and pursuea national defense policy that was defensive in nature. It also added thatunder no circumstances would China use or threaten to use nuclear weaponsagainst non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones.link>
The Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman called on the US — which possessesthe world’s largest nuclear weapons arsenal — to conform to theirreversible world trend of peace and development rather than run in theopposite direction.
“We hope the US will abandon a Cold War mentality and earnestly shoulderits special and primary responsibility for its own nuclear disarmament,understand correctly China’s strategic intentions, and take a fair view onChina’s national defense and military development,” Ren added.
China has the world’s fifth-largest nuclear arsenal, with 300 warheads,according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The USand Russia each possess about 7,000 warheads, or about 20 times as many asBeijing.
Before he became US president, Donald Trump did a lot of China-bashingparticularly in matters of trade; but since assuming office, Trump hastaken a softer line on China and tried to cultivate a relationship with theChinese leadership.