Why China won’t sign up to save a cold war nuclear missile deal
- There’s little incentive for Beijing to join the INF Treaty when it does not cover sea- or air-launched weapons, observers say
It would not be in China’s interests to join or salvage the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a cold war-era missile pact with Russia that the United States is abandoning, according to Chinese military experts.
At the Munich Security Conference on the weekend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged China to be involved in international disarmament efforts, commenting on the US withdrawal by saying “disarmament is something that concerns us all”.
However, Chinese Politburo member Yang Jiechi, who also attended the security conference, signalled that China had no plans to save the arms control treaty with a firm insistence that Beijing was “opposed to the multilateralisation of the INF”.
The pact was signed more than three decades ago between the US and the then Soviet Union but US President Donald Trump started the six-month withdrawal from it this month, citing Russian violations. Moscow has denied any wrongdoing.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the treaty had played a big role in safeguarding the global strategic balance and stability, and China was opposed to the US withdrawal.
“China ... urges the US and Russia to properly resolve differences through constructive dialogue,” Geng said.
Despite Beijing’s support for the pact, China is unlikely to join it because the INF is concerned mostly about land-based missiles, making little mention of the sea and air-launched weapons that Russia and the US have at their disposal, according to retired Chinese general Yao Yunzhu.