Photo: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning

China's nuclear forces are not in the same league as those of the US and Russia. At the current stage, it is unfair, unreasonable, and unfeasible to demand that China participate in so-called trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations among China, the US, and Russia, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press briefing on Friday in response to a media inquiry about recent claims made by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding that China join a nuclear control deal with the US and Russia.

According to media report, at a press conference at a meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Saint Kitts and Nevis on Wednesday, Rubio claimed that in the 21st century, for there to be a true arms control agreement, it has to involve China. 

Mao noted that China has made its position clear on this matter on multiple occasions. As a country with a massive nuclear arsenal, the US bears a special and primary responsibility to earnestly advance nuclear disarmament, which represents the broad consensus of the international community, Mao said.

"China firmly supports the purpose and objectives of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, and the US accusations that China is conducting nuclear explosive tests are entirely groundless and are merely an excuse fabricated to justify its own potential resumption of nuclear testing," Shen Jian, Chinese ambassador for disarmament affairs, said at a high-level meeting on disarmament in Geneva on Monday local time.



Global Times