Asked to respond to two questions, the first being the “Joint Statement of the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee (‘2+2’)” of the U.S. and Japanese defense and foreign ministers, about “China’s ongoing and accelerating expansion of its nuclear arsenal,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Wang Wenbin was direct: “China is firmly committed to a defensive nuclear strategy. We have honored our pledge to ‘no first use’ of nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances and unconditionally not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones. China is the only one among the five nuclear weapon states to have made these pledges.... For any country, as long as they do not 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.”
Wang had additional comments on Japan, regarding the joint statement released by President Biden and Prime Minister Kishida: “Japan’s militarist past, marked by devastating wars of aggression and brutal crimes against humanity, brought untold suffering on this region and beyond. Instead of drawing serious lessons from its past, Japan has displayed a dangerous tendency of rearming itself, with sharp rises in its annual defense spending for the 11th year running and constant readjustment of its defense policy aimed at military breakthrough. To justify its aggressive military build-up, Japan has been falsely hyping up regional tensions. It is even seeking to bring NATO into the Asia-Pacific. All of this makes people wonder whether Japan is tearing itself away from post-war peaceful development and fear the growing danger of history repeating itself. Our message for Japan: Anyone seeking to jeopardize and risk the security and stability in the Asia-Pacific will be rejected and pushed back by countries across the region.
