Beijing refutes US nuclear test accusations

China expressed opposition on Wednesday to the United States over fabricating excuses for its own attempt to resume nuclear tests, urging Washington to take concrete actions to safeguard international nuclear disarmament and the nuclear nonproliferation regime.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian made the remarks after Thomas DiNanno, the US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, told a disarmament forum in Geneva last week that China has conducted nuclear explosive tests — including one on June 22, 2020 — with yields "in the hundreds of tons".

DiNanno called on China to join multilateral talks on nuclear arms control and strategic stability.

Such accusations have no factual ground at all, Lin told a daily press conference.

"There is nothing new in the position of the US, which has kept distorting and vilifying China's nuclear policy as part of its political manipulation to seek nuclear hegemony and shirk its own responsibility for nuclear disarmament, and China firmly rejects this," Lin said.

Lin stressed that Washington is the biggest disruptor of the international nuclear order and global strategic stability.

In the area of arms control, the US has allowed the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty to expire, a move that has seriously eroded the trust among major countries and dealt a severe blow to global strategic stability, he said.

The New START treaty, signed in 2010 and extended in 2021, expired on Feb 5, ending decades of US-Russia cooperation aimed at limiting the number of nuclear weapons each side keeps on high alert.

The US remains obsessed with the policy of first use of nuclear weapons, spending trillions of dollars to upgrade its nuclear triad to build a global antimissile system and to advance the forward deployment of strategic assets, Lin noted.

He added that Washington has applied double standards on nuclear nonproliferation issues, which disrupt global strategic balance and stability, harming international and regional peace and security.

As a country possessing a massive nuclear arsenal, the US should fulfill its special and primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament, the spokesman said.

He expressed hope that the US will do what the international community expects to see and resume dialogue with Russia on strategic stability to discuss the arrangements after the treaty expired.

Beijing urges Washington to renew the commitment of the five nuclear weapon states to a moratorium on nuclear testing and uphold the global consensus on the ban on nuclear testing, Lin said.

China is committed to a nuclear strategy that focuses on self-defense and maintains long-term consistency in its nuclear policy, he said, adding that the nation will continue playing a constructive role in safeguarding international peace and security.

zhoujin@chinadaily.com.cn