Mr. Chairman,

In his statement in the morning the U.S. Ambassador once again linked ideology with disarmament. He claimed that the U.S. was exercising self-restraint, while China and other country are doing as they wish to develop armament threatening the other countries’ security, this is nothing but distortion of the facts. The series of anachronistic statements by the U.S. during the current First Committee session will certainly get no support from the wider members of the UN.

In recent years, fixated on the Cold War mentality, the U.S. has been stirring up troubles in Asia-Pacific and other regions of the world, following a more aggressive nuclear strategy, using other countries as the excuse to break free from the constraints of international treaties, doing as it wishes to develop and deploy nuclear armament, lowering the threshold of using nuclear weapons, vigorously enhancing the global missile defense system, and following the strategy for outer space supremacy. Such behaviors have gravely undermined global strategic balance and stability.

During the deliberation of the First Committee, I have not heard any single country endorsing or echoing the so called “nexus between democracy and disarmament” which is utterly nonsense full of ideological biases proposed by the U.S. Most countries are candidly expressing strong regret and growth concerns about the termination of INF, the U.S. withdrawal from JCPOA and lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons and other backtracking which have great impacts on international arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation process. Many countries strongly call for the extension of the New START Treaty and hope to see the bilateral nuclear disarmament process between the U.S. and Russia can be maintained, continued and developed. This represents what the international community wants. Many countries call for the Nuclear-weapons States to reiterate “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”. Among the P5, China is also actively advocating for that. However, no official from the U.S. President Trump’s administration seems willing so far to stand out and explicitly reiterate this famous remark made by former President Reagan over 30 years ago. The U.S. owes the world an explanation.

As for the U.S. accusations against China, I would like to emphasize the following points:

First, China’s nuclear arsenal is not at the same level of that of the U.S. and Russia. Before the U.S. lowers its own nuclear arsenal down to the level of China, any comments or criticism from the U.S. on Chinese military capabilities are hypocritical and hollow as they are feeble and futile.

Second, China’s deployment of relevant missile equipment within the Chinese territory based on our defensive policy of defense is purely intended for safeguarding China’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity. It does not constitute any threat to any country that has no intention to violate China’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.

Third, China is not the U.S., nor we’re trying to become the U.S. China will not adhere to the U.S. nuclear doctrine. I call on the U.S. not to project its wishful thinking to others, not to make, create or imagine enemies for itself, and not to continue its strategy and planning for the maintenance of global hegemony and absolute security under this pretext. Cold War has become history. If anyone attempts to make Cold War the new international security reality, he would definitely run into universal resistance and firm opposition from the international community.

I’d like to reiterate that China is an important positive force for the promotion of world peace and international security and the advancement of international process of arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation. China will remain committed to peaceful development, put into practice multilateralism, inject dynamism into international process of arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation, and make contributions towards the advancement of peace and security of the mankind.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.