BEIJING (AP) — China on Sunday criticized a U. S. government report that cast Beijing as a potential nuclear adversary and called on Washington to reduce its own much larger arsenal and join in promoting regional stability.
BEIJING (AP) — China on Sunday criticized a U. S. government report that cast Beijing as a potential nuclear adversary and called on Washington to reduce its own much larger arsenal and join in promoting regional stability.
A Defense Ministry statement said China’s nuclear arsenal is the « minimum level » required for security. It pledged never to be the first to use nuclear weapons « under any circumstances. »
The sweeping U. S. nuclear strategy review issued Friday said Washington wants to prevent Beijing from mistakenly concluding that any use of nuclear weapons, however limited, is acceptable.
« The Chinese side expresses firm opposition » to the report, said a ministry spokesman, Ren Guoqiang.
« We hope the U. S. will abandon a Cold War mentality and earnestly shoulder its special and prior responsibility for its own nuclear disarmament, » said Ren.
The ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, has the world’s fifth-largest nuclear arsenal, with 300 warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
