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By Micah McCartney
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China has urged the U.S. to take more serious steps toward reducing its nuclear arsenal and to "abandon its Cold War mentality" after Washington revised its nuclear strategy to focus on the East Asian country.
"China firmly opposes the U.S. expanding its nuclear arsenal and shirking responsibilities for nuclear disarmament under the pretext of the nonexistent 'China nuclear threat,'" spokesperson Wu Qian said during the Chinese defense ministry's monthly news conference Thursday.
Two senior Biden administration officials have recently alluded to the revised document, titled Nuclear Employment Guidance. The guidance is updated every four years, and was most recently changed in March, with President Joe Biden's authorization, The New York Times reported last week.
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Vipin Narang, an M.I.T. nuclear strategist who until this month served in the Pentagon, said Biden had updated the document to account for multiple nuclear-armed adversaries," with a particular focus on the significant increase in the size and diversity" of China's nuclear weapons stockpile.
The National Security Council's senior director for arms control and nonproliferation, Pranay Vaddi, also referred to the new plan, insisting that the U.S. must be able to deter China, Russia, and North Korea simultaneously.
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Vaddi previously warned all three countries are "expanding and diversifying their nuclear arsenals at a breakneck pace."
Wu on Thursday stressed China "keeps its nuclear force at the minimum level required for national security and pointed out China maintains a no-first-use doctrine for nuclear arms, while the U.S. boasts the world's largest nuclear stockpile and allows for a first strike.
China has called on other so-called "P5" nuclear states—the U.S., Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and India—to start negotiations on a non-first-strike treaty. India is the only country other than China to adopt no-first-use.
The spokesperson went on to criticize the U.S. for its "double standard on nuclear proliferation." He cited the country's development of miniature, or low-yield, warheads being deployed on Ohio-class nuclear submarines.
"We urge the U.S. to abandon Cold-War mentality, further reduce its nuclear arsenal in a substantive manner, stop proliferating nuclear material and technology, refrain from extending nuclear deterrence or expanding nuclear alliance, and take concrete actions to promote global strategic stability," he added.
During "two-on-two" talks on extended deterrence in Tokyo last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reaffirmed to their Japanese counterparts Washington's "nuclear commitment" to the ally.
Extended deterrence refers to the U.S. commitment to deter or respond to potential threats, both nuclear and conventional, in defense of key partners. This "nuclear umbrella" covers Japan, South Korea, Australia, and NATO partners.
Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a written request for comment.
Though much smaller than the Russian and American nuclear arsenals, China has been rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal and modernizing its capabilities in line with President Xi Jinping's goal of rivaling the U.S. as a military power.
Though fewer than its U.S. and Russian counterparts, the Pentagon believes China has roughly 500 warheads, up from the low 200s in 2020.
According to the independent Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the country is on track to reach 1,000 warheads by 2030 and may have, in a first during peacetime, deployed a small number of warheads on missiles.
The U.S. boasts an estimated 5,044 nuclear warheads, including 1,336 that have been retired and will eventually be dismantled. Russia has the largest number of warheads with an estimated 5,580, including 1,200 marked for retirement.
The U.S. and the other P5 states are signatories to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which requires them to pursue nuclear disarmament "in good faith" with goal of eventually eliminating the weapons.
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