China hits back at US over Pentagon report, calls America top 'nuclear threat' to world

China has labelled the United States the top ‘nuclear threat’ while rejecting the US Department of Defense report characterising the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) growing capabilities and nuclear arsenal arguing that it is America that was stirring nuclear tensions, not Beijing.   

Responding to Pentagon’s "Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China" report on Wednesday, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington Liu Pengyu argued that the US DoD report disregards facts, “just like similar reports in the past.”  

The Pentagon report estimated that the PLA Rocket Force has already doubled its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) strength from 150 to 300 and would seek to nearly quadruple its nuclear arsenal from a current count of somewhere above 400 to 1,500 by the year 2035.

"The U.S. is using this report to hype up the 'China nuclear threat' theory," Liu told Newsweek. "But this is manipulating rhetoric to confuse public opinion, which is seen through by the international community,” he added.

China, US trade nuclear blames

The Chinese diplomat further accused the US of possessing the “world's largest and most advanced nuclear arsenal,” and said that the US still invests trillions of dollars to upgrade its "nuclear triad," while developing low-yield nuclear weapons.  

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US has around 5,500 nuclear warheads, out of which approximately 1,744 are currently deployed. The nuclear arsenals of both Russia and the United States remain bound by the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START). Apart from this accord, critical mutual verification measures regarding nukes have been suspended amid tensions between Moscow and Washington due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

The Chinese diplomat further noted that “the US has withdrawn from legal instruments in arms control," including the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, which was scrapped by President George W Bush in 2002. Another treaty, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was discarded by President Donald Trump in 2019.  

According to Liu, Washington meanwhile “kept advancing the deployment of anti-missile systems around the world, resumed research and development and tests of intermediate-range land-based missiles and sought to deploy them in Europe and the Asia-Pacific.” He further stated that the United States established a small clique with strong Cold War undertones through the AUKUS nuclear submarine cooperation.  

Meanwhile, he maintained, “China abides by the policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances.” He further said that Beijing “undertakes unequivocally not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones unconditionally,” reported Newsweek.