At a regular press conference on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Washington’s fear-mongering over China’s nuclear arsenal is completely unfounded.
Her remarks followed a New York Times report from Tuesday revealing that US President Joe Biden had quietly revised the Nuclear Employment Guidance, refocusing it on China.
Mao stressed that Beijing was “gravely concerned” with the report. “As we have seen over the past few years, the US has called China a ‘nuclear threat’ and used it as a convenient pretext for the US to shirk its obligation of nuclear disarmament,” she added.
The Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman further said that China’s nuclear arsenal is by no means comparable in size to that of the US.
She further said that China adheres to a ‘no first use’ policy regarding nuclear weapons, maintains a nuclear strategy centered on self-defense, and keeps its capabilities at the minimum level necessary for national security.
“We have no intention to engage in any form of arms race with other countries,” Mao stressed.
“In contrast, the US sits on the largest and most advanced nuclear arsenal in the world. Even so, it clings to a first-use nuclear deterrence policy, and has invested heavily to upgrade its nuclear triad and blatantly devised nuclear deterrence strategies against others. It is the US who is the primary source of nuclear threats and strategic risks in the world,” she emphasized.
Citing a classified document approved in March, the Times reported that Biden had directed US forces to be ready for potential coordinated nuclear conflicts with Russia, China, and North Korea.
The American president approved a top-secret nuclear strategic plan for the US that, for the first time, shifts America's deterrent strategy to address China’s purported swift growth in its nuclear arsenal, the report further said.
In 2023, the Pentagon projected that China would increase its operational nuclear warheads to over 1,000 by 2030. Currently, the US has 5,550 warheads, while Russia's arsenal is estimated at 6,255, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
“China urges the US to fulfill its special and primary obligation of nuclear disarmament by further making drastic and substantive cuts to its nuclear arsenal, and stopping nuclear sharing, extended deterrence, expanding nuclear alliance, and other negative moves that undermine global and regional peace and stability,” Mao concluded.
Chinese officials have criticized US concerns as an irrational and unfounded paranoia, asserting that such Sinophobic sentiments only serve to escalate tensions.
Beijing has time and again emphasized that its nuclear strategy is defensive in nature, calling for a more rational and cooperative approach to nuclear arms control.
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