American hostility means China can’t come clean on its nuclear arsenal, Beijing official says

To ensure the effectiveness of its nuclear strategy, ‘China maintains a certain degree of ambiguity’ regarding numbers of warheads, head of the foreign ministry arms control department says

Beijing will only join Washington and Moscow in arms limitation talks if ‘US commits to reducing its nuclear arsenal to a level’ similar to China’s, he says

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China showed off some of its Dongfeng-41 intercontinental nuclear missiles at its National Day Parade in Beijing last year. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 7:00pm, 16 Oct 2020Updated: 10:42pm, 16 Oct 2020

The United States’ “hostile policies” mean China must retain some ambiguity regarding its nuclear arsenal, and expecting Beijing to engage in arms control talks under the current circumstances is “unreasonable and unrealistic”, according to a senior foreign ministry official.

In an interview with Russian newspaper Kommersant – an English translation of which was published by Beijing on Thursday – Fu Cong, the head of the Chinese foreign ministry’s arms control department, defended China’s lack of transparency on the issue.

To ensure the effectiveness of its nuclear strategy, “it is important that China maintains a certain degree of ambiguity in terms of its numbers”, he said.

“Especially given the fact that the US, which regards China as its biggest competitor, is adopting such hostile policies towards China and maintains such a huge nuclear arsenal, of 6,000 [warheads].”

The US Department of Defence said in its annual report to Congress on China’s military power last month that the Asian giant’s nuclear arsenal was set to at least double over the next decade.