China yesterday said that it would continue to “modernize” its nuclear arsenal, while calling on the US and Russia to reduce their own stockpiles a day after global powers pledged to prevent such weapons from spreading.
In a rare joint statement setting aside rising tensions, the US, China, Russia, the UK and France reaffirmed their goal of creating a world free of nuclear weapons and avoiding a nuclear conflict.
The five nuclear powers also committed to full future disarmament from nuclear weapons, which have only been used in conflict in the US bombings of Japan at the end of World War II, but squaring that rhetoric with reality would not be easy at a time of spiraling tensions between those same global powers not seen since the Cold War.
Photo: AP
There are growing global concerns about China’s rapid military modernization, especially after its armed forces last year announced they had developed a hypersonic missile that can fly at five times the spread of sound.
The US has also said that China is expanding its nuclear arsenal to as many as 700 warheads by 2027 and possibly 1,000 by 2030.
China yesterday defended its nuclear weapons policy, and said Russia and the US — by far the world’s largest nuclear powers — should make the first move on disarmament.
“The US and Russia still possess 90 percent of the nuclear warheads on Earth,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department of Arms Control Director-General Fu Cong (傅聰) told reporters. “They must reduce their nuclear arsenal in an irreversible and legally binding manner.”
Fu dismissed US claims that China was vastly increasing its nuclear capabilities.
“China has always adopted the ‘no first use’ policy and we maintain our nuclear capabilities at the minimal level required for our national security,” he said.
However, he said Beijing would “continue to modernize its nuclear arsenal for reliability and safety issues.”
Ties between Beijing and Washington have been strained over a series of issues, including Beijing’s saber-rattling toward Taiwan, which has reached new heights under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the nation’s most authoritarian leader in a generation.
Fu dismissed speculation over the possibility of deploying nuclear weapons near the Taiwan Strait.
“Nuclear weapons are the ultimate deterrent, they are not for war or fighting,” he said.
While the US and Russia have had a formal strategic stability dialogue since the days of the Cold War, producing several disarmament agreements, that is not the case between Washington and Beijing.
In Europe, tensions with Moscow have deteriorated over a Russian troop buildup close to its border with Ukraine. That has raised fears that the Kremlin, worried by the possibility of further eastward expansion of NATO, is planning a new attack on its neighbor.
Crunch talks between Russia and the US on European security are expected in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday next week.
The US Department of State yesterday criticized Beijing over its misrepresentation of the US’ “one China” policy in the latest diplomatic salvo between the two countries over a bid by Taiwan to regain its observer status at the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO. “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to publicly misrepresent U.S. policy,” Department of State spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter. “The United States does not subscribe to the PRC’s ‘one China principle’ — we remain committed to our longstanding, bipartisan one China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, Three Joint Communiques, and
FATES LINKED: The US president said that sanctions on Russia over Ukraine must exact a ‘long-term price,’ because otherwise ‘what signal does that send to China?’ US President Joe Biden yesterday vowed that US forces would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack in his strongest statement to date on the issue. Beijing is already “flirting with danger,” Biden said following talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, in which the pair agreed to monitor Chinese naval activity and joint Chinese-Russian exercises. Asked if Washington was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, he replied: “Yes.” “That’s the commitment we made,” Biden said. “We agreed with the ‘one China’ policy, we signed on to it ... but the idea that it can be
INFORMATION LEAKED: Documents from Xinjiang purportedly showed top leaders in Beijing calling for a forceful crackdown and even orders to shoot to kill Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday held a videoconference with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet as she visited Xinjiang during a mission overshadowed by fresh allegations of Uighur abuses and fears she is being used as a public relations tool. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been accused of detaining more than 1 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the region as part of a years-long crackdown the US and lawmakers in other Western nations have labeled a “genocide.” China denies the allegations. Bachelet was expected to visit the cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on a six-day tour. The US
SUBTLE? While Biden said the US policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ on Taiwan had not changed, the group targeted China and Russia without naming them Leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the US yesterday warned against attempts to “change the status quo by force,” as concerns grow about whether China could invade Taiwan. The issue of Taiwan loomed over a leadership meeting in Tokyo of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) nations — the US, Japan, Australia and India — who stressed their determination to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region in the face of an increasingly assertive China, although Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the group was not targeting any one country. The four leaders said in a joint statement issued after their talks
RSS