China has ‘no intention’ of nuclear arms race with US – Foreign Ministry
Washington’s fearmongering over Beijing’s nuclear arsenal is completely unfounded, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning has said.
Her comments came after the New York Times reported on Tuesday that US President Joe Biden had quietly updated the nation’s Nuclear Employment Guidance, refocusing it on China.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Mao said that Beijing was “gravely concerned” with the report. “The US has called China a ‘nuclear threat’ and used it as a convenient pretext for the US to shirk its obligation of nuclear disarmament,” she claimed.
Mao added that the size of China’s nuclear arsenal was “by no means on the same level with the US,” stressing that Beijing “follows a policy of ‘no first use’ of nuclear weapons and always keeps its nuclear capabilities at the minimum level required by national security.” China has “no intention to engage in any form of arms race” with other states, she said.
“It is the US who is the primary source of nuclear threats and strategic risks in the world,” the spokeswoman argued.
In 2023, the Pentagon estimated that China will double its stockpile of operational nuclear warheads to over 1,000 by 2030. The US currently has 5,550 warheads, while Russia has 6,255, according to estimates published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The White House has downplayed China’s concerns, with spokesman Sean Savett describing the change in nuclear strategy as a routine update that was “not a response to any single entity, country, nor threat.”
US officials, however, have repeatedly described China as “a challenge” to world peace and accused it of economic and military coercion in the Indo-Pacific. Beijing, in turn, has blamed the US for the ongoing tensions, urging Washington to abandon its “Cold-War mentality.”
