China implies US hypocrisy over nuclear disarmament

China on Tuesday urged the United States to fulfil its nuclear disarmament responsibilities after a draft Pentagon report said China was likely to have loaded more than 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles in sites near the Mongolian border and showed no desire for arms control talks.



"As a super nuclear power with the largest nuclear arsenal, the most urgent task for the U.S. is to earnestly fulfil the special and priority responsibility for nuclear disarmament," Lin Jian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, said at a regular press conference in Beijing.



The U.S. should "substantially reduce its nuclear arsenal to create conditions for other nuclear-weapon states to join the nuclear disarmament process," Lin added.



In a draft report seen by Reuters, the Pentagon said China had probably installed more than 100 solid-fuelled DF-31 ICBMs in the three silo fields close to Mongolia. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a Chicago-based non-profit, has said China is expanding and modernising its weapons stockpile faster than any other nuclear-armed power.



U.S. President Donald Trump signalled last month that he might be working on a plan to denuclearise with China and Russia.