Beijing | China said on Tuesday it would continue to “modernize its nuclear arsenal for reliability and security issues” and called on Moscow and Washington to reduce their stocks of atomic weapons, the world’s largest.
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This clarification from Beijing comes after the commitment the day before by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to prevent the spread of atomic weapons.
The five powers (United States, China, Russia, United Kingdom and France) notably declared that a “nuclear war could not be won” and promised to strengthen their measures to “prevent the unauthorized or unintentional use of ‘nuclear weapons “.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), the United States had 5,550 nuclear weapons in January 2021, compared with 350 for China.
Washington regularly accuses Beijing of rapidly strengthening its nuclear arsenal, “false” claims, said Fu Cong, director general of the arms control service at the Chinese foreign ministry, on Tuesday.
“China has always adopted the policy of non-first use of nuclear weapons and we maintain our nuclear capabilities at the minimum level required for our national security,” he told reporters.
“China will continue to modernize its nuclear arsenal for reliability and security issues. Nuclear weapons are also aging. We need to make sure ours are up to date and can act as a deterrent as well. “
Beijing regularly rejects Washington’s invitations to join US-Russian talks on reducing their nuclear weapons, stressing that its arsenal is much smaller.
“The United States and Russia still own 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads. They must reduce their nuclear arsenal in an irreversible and legally binding manner, ”said Fu Cong.