(SONG CHEN / CHINA DAILY)
BEIJING – China has urged the United States to abandon the Cold War mentality and the logic of hegemonism, pursue a rational and responsible nuclear policy, fulfill its special and primary responsibility in nuclear disarmament.
Washington should play its due role in maintaining global strategic stability and world peace and security, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, told a daily news briefing on Friday when asked to comment on the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). The US Department of Defense released by the review on Thursday.
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The US 2022 NPR smacks heavily of Cold War and zero-sum mentality and hypes up major-power competition and bloc confrontation and uses nuclear weapons as tools to advance its geopolitical agenda, said Wang.
We have the capability and confidence to safeguard our national security interests. The US’ nuclear blackmail will not work on China.
Wang Wenbin, Spokesperson, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China
"This is clearly against the world's desire to prevent a nuclear war or nuclear arms race."
The spokesperson pointed out that the US has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, and continues to upgrade its "nuclear triad" and selectively advances the international nuclear arms control process only when doing so serves to suppress the countries it sees as rivals.
"What's behind the US policy is its hegemonic logic of seeking absolute military superiority, which could stoke a nuclear arms race," he stressed.
The US claims it would use nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear or non-nuclear strategic attack and seek to develop or forward-deploy non-strategic nuclear weapons, he said, adding that Washington has placed more importance on the role of nuclear weapons in national security policy and lowered the threshold for using nuclear weapons, which has gradually become a source of risks for nuclear conflict.
The US has been hyping up so-called nuclear threat from certain countries, "tailoring" nuclear deterrence strategies targeting these countries and calling for "nuclear sharing" that violates the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), said Wang.
It has also tried to reinforce its extended deterrence commitments to its allies in the Asia Pacific, he added.
Wang noted that the US moves have undermined mutual trust between major countries, stoked nuclear arms race and confrontation, stimulated nuclear proliferation, and seriously harmed regional and international peace and stability.
He stressed that in this latest NPR, the US has made irresponsible remarks and accusations as well as groundless speculations on China's normal modernization of its nuclear forces.
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The US has brazenly "tailored" a nuclear deterrence strategy against China, which is seriously concerned about and firmly opposed to such move, said the foreign ministry spokesperson.
"We have the capability and confidence to safeguard our national security interests. The US’ nuclear blackmail will not work on China," he stressed.