BEIJING, May 26 -- "Any attempt to build one's own security on the insecurity of other countries is unfair and unsustainable. Facts have proven that the US is the greatest nuclear threat to the international community," said a Chinese defense spokesperson at a regular press conference in Beijing on Thursday.
Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in responding to recent words made by a US military official.
It is reported that Charles Richard, commander of the US Strategic Command, said in a recent Senate hearing that Washington faces a heightened nuclear deterrence risk when it comes to Russia and China, and that China will likely use nuclear coercion to its advantage in the future considering its quick expansion of nuclear arsenal in recent years, with considerable growth in its land-, sea- and air-based nuclear forces.
Snr. Col. Wu Qian said that the US officer is just exaggerating the so-called nuclear threats from China in total disregard of the facts. His purpose is no other than finding an excuse for Washington's own nuclear weapon development and maintaining and cementing its global domination.
"It is known to all that the US has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world," Wu said, noting that in recent years, to ensure its absolute security and military superiority, the US has pulled itself out of several international treaties on arms control and non-proliferation, consistently pushed the deployment of anti-missile systems worldwide, sought to deploy land-based intermediate-range missiles in Europe and Asia-Pacific, and formed the Cold War-like "cliques" through multiple ways.
Wu pointed out that at the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) not long ago, the US released a negative signal by refusing to adopt a "no first use" policy. What the US said and did have increased the risk of a breakout of nuclear confrontation or even a nuclear war, implying grave hazards for international security.
"China pursues a nuclear strategy of self-defense, commits to a nuclear policy of no first use of nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances, and not using or threatening to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones unconditionally, and keeps its nuclear capabilities at the minimum level required for national security," said the spokesperson. "This policy is clear and definite."
"We hope the US will abandon the outdated Cold War and zero-sum mentality and the narrow geopolitical concept, actively fulfill its international obligations of nuclear non-proliferation, and meet China halfway to jointly preserve regional and global peace, stability and prosperity," added Snr. Col. Wu.
