The US and China are set to hold rare nuclear arms control talks amid growing concerns over Beijing’s accelerated push to build up its arsenal of atomic weapons, a US official said.
The objective of the low-level discussions, scheduled to begin next week, is not to reduce the size of China’s arsenal. Instead, their purpose is to give the US President Joe Biden’s administration a better understanding of China’s plans weeks after the Pentagon issued a report saying that Beijing was manufacturing nuclear weapons faster than expected.
The talks are to occur as Biden prepares to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during the APEC summit in San Francisco in less than two weeks. The sessions also highlight how the US and China are gradually resuming a range of exchanges that had been cut short amid tensions over Taiwan, trade and other matters since Biden and Xi met at a G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, a year ago.
Photo: Reuters
The US Department of State and the US National Security Council declined to comment on the issue.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on the talks. The newspaper said the US would be represented by US Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Mallory Stewart and China would send Sun Xiaobo (孫曉波), who leads the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ arms control department.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) told a regular press briefing in Beijing yesterday that “the two sides will hold exchanges on a range of issues.”
Last month, the Pentagon issued a report saying China had about 500 nuclear warheads this year and plans to have more than 1,000 by 2030, a buildup that was faster than expected. The US has about 3,700 nuclear warheads.
The US is also anxious to head off a three-way nuclear arms race with Russia and China, especially with talks over extending the New Start Treaty, which expires in 2026, stalled over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in June that the Biden administration was prepared to engage with Russia on nuclear arms control, but the buildup of China’s arsenal was complicating those efforts and had to be taken into account as the US modernizes its force.
Sullivan said China’s plan to have as many as 1,500 warheads by 2035 marked “one of the largest peacetime nuclear buildups in history.”
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