BEIJING, March 13: China, one of the world's five nuclear powers, has denied its nuclear arsenal pose a threat to any country.China has always stood for total nuclear disarmament, the official Xinhua news agency reported, quoting the country's new ambassador for disarmament affairs, Li Changhe.
China has all along supported the efforts of non-nuclear weapon states to establish nuclear weapon-free zones on a voluntary basis, Li said, adding that China opposes a nuclear arms race and the policy of nuclear deterrence.Making a formal statement at the conference on disarmament (CD) yesterday in Geneva, Li said, ``Since the very first day when it came into possession of nuclear weapons, China has undertaken not to be the first to use such weapons at any time and under any circumstances''.
China has also made a unilateral and unconditional commitment not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states or in nuclear weapon-free zones, he said.
Pointing out that China had activelyparticipated in negotiations on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (ctbt) and signed it, Li said, ``We also support the commencement of negotiations in the conference on disarmament on a convention banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons''. The Chinese official urged countries possessing the largest and most advanced nuclear arsenals to continue to fulfil their obligations for nuclear disarmament.
``They should carry out further drastic reduction of their nuclear arsenals, abandon the strategy of nuclear deterrence, stop research and development and proliferation of missile defence systems which undermine global strategic security and stability,'' Li said.
Meanwhile, Chinese President Jiang Zemin has said that in the light of ``new circumstances'', the government had revised the strategic principles for China's military development. ``The new principles aim at enabling the Chinese army to win victories in local wars fought with modern technologies, especially high-technologies, andplace emphasis on the quality, rather than the quantity of troops,'' Jiang, also chairman of the central military commission, said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
