What the G7 accuses China of is a false narrative: Chinese FM

(ECNS)-- “The international nuclear arms control rules are not the house rules set by the G7. The G7 has no right to dictate to other countries on arms control. China rejects the G7’s finger-pointing,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said on Monday.

What the G7 accuses China of is a false narrative, the spokesperson stressed.

Mao made the comment at a regular news conference, adding that the G7 abandons the basic principles including upholding global strategic stability, undermines the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime, feigns innocence and attacks and smears other countries’ nuclear policy.

“This will only drive up antagonism and confrontation and create obstacles for the international nuclear disarmament process,” she said.

Mao pointed out that the U.S. possesses the biggest and most advanced nuclear arsenal in the world, but it obstinately insists on a policy of first use of nuclear weapons, invests heavily in upgrading its “nuclear triad”, withdraws from agreements on arms control including the Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, seeks to forward-deploy strategic forces and spreads weapons-grade highly-enriched uranium to non-nuclear weapon states.

Three of the G7 countries are nuclear weapon states, and the other four either have “nuclear-sharing” arrangements or sit under the “nuclear umbrella”, she noted.

China is firmly committed to a defensive nuclear strategy and the only nuclear weapon state to pledge “no first use” of nuclear weapons and not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones, Mao said.

“We have always kept our nuclear capabilities at the minimum level required by national security. For any country, as long as they do not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against China, they have nothing to worry about being threatened by China’s nuclear weapons. This is the most meaningful transparency a country can provide. I wonder which one of the nuclear weapon states among the G7 can make this pledge as China does?” she said.