Nation rebukes US State Department's nuclear smear

The world has a fair opinion on who is conducting nuclear madness, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday, adding that the United States cannot fool anyone by smearing China.

Hua made the remark in response to an article named "China's Nuclear Madness" published by the US State Department on Monday.

The op-ed written by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a number of assertions and claims about China's nuclear weapons strategy, including its "no first use" policy.

"We hope the US can realize that the 'lying diplomacy' conducted by Pompeo and the US State Department has caused so much enormous and horrible impact on the US national image and reputation," Hua told reporters at a regular news briefing in Beijing.

On the nuclear issue, Hua noted that it is well-known that the US owns the biggest and most advanced nuclear arsenal in the world.

However, the US has violated the international consensus, refused to implement its special and primary responsibilities on nuclear disarmament and withdrawn from multiple treaties, she said.

According to Hua, the US has also spent billions of dollars on upgrading its nuclear arsenal, reduced the threshold and expanded the scope of nuclear use, severely undermining global strategic security and stability.

Noting that China is the only country of the five nuclear-weapon states, comprising the US, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China, to pursue the policy of not being the first to use nuclear arms under any circumstances at whatever time, Hua said that China hopes the US can make the same promise.

"China's no-first-use policy won't change," she said.

"As China is committed to a defense policy that is defensive in nature, we have been keeping our nuclear strength to the minimum level that our national security needs … We also unconditionally promise that we do not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons on non-nuclear states and non-nuclear weapon zones," Hua said.

"We also urge the US to respond to Russia's call to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty as soon as possible and on this basis to further drastically reduce its nuclear arsenal," the spokeswoman added.