Beijing has said Washington carries the primary responsibility for disarmament, as it has one of the world’s biggest arsenals
China said on Wednesday that it would not participate in denuclearization talks with the US and Russia, calling the idea “unreasonable and unrealistic,” since it holds a minimal number of nuclear weapons for national defense.
Asked to comment on US President Donald Trump’s proposal for Beijing to join the initiative, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun responded that China and the US are not at the same level of nuclear capabilities.
“The country sitting on the world’s biggest nuclear arsenal should earnestly fulfill its special and primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament,” he said, referring to the US.
Gou stressed that Beijing follows a strict “no first use” policy and keeps its stockpile at the minimum level required for national security. “China never engages in arms race with anyone,” he said, calling it “neither reasonable nor realistic to ask China to join.”
Trump on Monday revealed that he had discussed nuclear arms reduction with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Alaska. “We’re talking about limiting nuclear, we’ll get China into that. We have the most, Russia has the second most, and China has third. But China is way behind, but they’ll catch us in five years,” he said. Moscow has not commented on Trump’s remarks.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia holds about 2,591 warheads in storage and has 1,718 deployed, while the US has 1,930 and 1,770, respectively. China’s arsenal is estimated at 576 warheads, with only 24 deployed. The UK and France maintain 120 and 280 deployed warheads.
The last arms control accord between Washington and Moscow, the ‘New START’ treaty, capped deployed strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550 – the lowest level in decades. Signed in 2010 and set to expire in 2021, it was extended for five years to 2026.
Russia formally suspended its participation in the treaty in 2023 over US military aid to Ukraine but said it would continue to abide by the limits set out in the treaty.
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