Shen Jian, China's ambassador for disarmament, did not directly comment on these accusations but emphasized that Beijing maintains a "moderate and responsible" stance on nuclear weapons. In turn, he accused the U.S. of provoking an arms race. Robert Floyd, the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, noted that the organization's monitoring systems did not detect any suspicious activities during the specified period. China signed this treaty but has not ratified it.
These accusations came against the backdrop of the expiration on February 5 of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), signed between Russia and the U.S. in 2010. Thus, Moscow and Washington are for the first time since 1972 without restrictions on the deployment of nuclear missiles and warheads. Donald Trump, the U.S. president, previously proposed not to extend this treaty but to instead negotiate a new, "improved and modernized" one, with mandatory participation from China.
In Beijing, officials emphasize that they do not intend to participate in such negotiations, pointing out that China has approximately 600 nuclear warheads, while Russia and the U.S. each have around 4,000.
