China Gives US Demands for Preventing Nuclear War

China gave the United States a list of demands to prevent nuclear war ahead of arms control talks.

The U.S. and China are expected to hold discussions about nuclear arms control next week for the first time in years. Relations between the two countries have remained tense this year amid Washington's support for Taiwan, the Chinese spy balloon shot down in February, and disputes about U.S. military presence in the Indo-Pacific. China has clashed with other countries in the region, including the Philippines, in recent months.

Concerns about an armed conflict involving China have sparked concerns about the potential for nuclear war, as China is among the countries with the largest nuclear arsenal, which continues to grow, with at least 500 warheads, the Pentagon said last month.

The talks are scheduled for Monday and will be led by State Department official Mallory Stewart and Sun Xiaobo, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's head of arms control. The talks are not expected to spark negotiations about limiting either side's nuclear arsenal but could provide the State Department an opportunity to learn more about China's nuclear plans, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Chinese state media on Thursday ran an opinion piece outlining several red lines for Beijing ahead of the talks. The opinion piece, published in the Global Times and penned by the publication's former Editor-in-Chief Hu Xijin, noted the meeting is about communication and is "far from talking about achieving a target of arms control."

Hu said Beijing should make it clear to the U.S. that China is building its nuclear arsenal to "hedge against rising strategic risks and to achieve a new security balance."

"China's security situation has changed, and the minimum size of the nuclear arsenal needed to defend China's national security has changed along with it, so it must be much more powerful than it was in the past," he wrote.

He added that China also remains committed to a "no-first-use" policy and that nuclear weapons should be only a tool to prevent strikes against China.

China should ask the U.S. to "stop its continuous expansion of nuclear power which is already at its peak," he wrote, describing that move from the U.S. as a "basis for the practical significance of arms control."

Hu also called for China to voice concerns about U.S. allies to Biden administration officials during the meeting.

"The US helps Australia develop nuclear submarines, setting a dangerous precedent for nuclear proliferation. Dangerous discussions surrounding nuclear possession have emerged from time to time in Japan and South Korea, and the US needs to pay more attention to its allies," he wrote.

Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Department of State for comment via email.

Many specifics about the meeting, including the exact nature of what will be discussed, remain unknown.

Alicia Sanders-Zakre, the policyand research coordinator at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, said in a statement to Newsweek Thursday morning that while the meeting is welcomed, neither side has indicated they are "working in good faith towards nuclear reductions and disarmament," pointing out that both the U.S. and China have taken steps to build up their nuclear stockpile.

"In order to implement their obligation under international law to work towards disarmament, when they meet China and the United States should discuss a pathway to joining the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the only international treaty with a verifiable path to nuclear disarmament," Sanders-Zakre said.

"In the meantime, they should agree to observe the Second Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW taking place later this month in New York."

Correction 11/03/2023 7:02 a.m. ET: This article was updated to correct Sanders-Zakre's job title.