Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Tan Kefei has questioned the conclusions of the latest annual US military report on China, a document he has described as “distorting” and “speculatory”.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the military spokesman mentions that the report speculates on the modernization of China’s nuclear forces, while the US must “reflect more deeply on its own nuclear policy.”
“Holding the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, the US continues to modernize its nuclear triad, vigorously pursues the development and deployment of non-strategic nuclear weapons, lowers the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, and pursues nuclear proliferation through partnership security trilateral AUKUS, becoming more and more a source of nuclear conflicts,” Kefei said in the document.
The representative recalled that his country “firmly pursues a nuclear self-defense strategy,” excludes it from being the first to use nuclear weapons “at any time and under no circumstances,” and maintains nuclear capabilities at the “minimum level necessary for national security.” .
Kefei urged Washington to “abandon the Cold War mentality, correct its misperception of China, view the development of China and its armed forces rationally,” as well as take concrete steps to improve relations between the two countries and the two armies back to the “track of solid and stable development.”
According to the Pentagon report released last month, the Asian country could increase its nuclear arsenal from the current more than 400 nuclear warheads to 1,500 by 2035 if it maintains the current rate of expansion.
