China has launched a diplomatic offensive against the US nuclear weapons posture as it rapidly strengthens its own nuclear capabilities.
Beijing, the only one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council that has committed to not using nuclear weapons first, has called in Geneva for the others to match that pledge and has also denounced Washington’s arrangements for deterring attacks on its allies.
In its formal proposal, China said a nuclear “no first use” policy was “increasingly becoming an important consensus and priority” in international arms control. But officials of the US and allied nations and analysts said Beijing’s proposal and censure of the US and its allies were an attempt to blunt western criticism of its own nuclear arms build-up.