China and U.S. Talk Nukes

China has demanded that the United States adopt a no-first-use policy and give up its “nuclear umbrella” to allies in Europe and Asia. This comes after Beijing suspended arms control talks with Washington over Taiwan last week. 

The Chinese Foreign Ministry published two papers on Monday in regard to the “no-first-use of nuclear weapons” policy, that were already previously submitted to the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

The idea of the international treaty NPT was to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and, instead, further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament. The treaty first began in 1968 and went into effect two years later. It involves China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States - a group known as the “P5”.

China advocated a “no-first-use” initiative and requested the other members of the P5 follow suit, to publicly promise to not be the first to use nuclear weapons at any time or under any circumstances. China also states that their nuclear arsenal is just for self defense and never to threaten others.

Meanwhile, the United States has sold weapons to Taipei for decades, leading to Beijing accusing the U.S. of undermining their core interests (as Taipei is the capital of Taiwan, which is a self-ruled breakaway province). Just last week, China announced the decision to stop nuclear talks because of these sales between the U.S. and Taipei. 

In rebuttal, the U.S. has questioned China’s real commitment to nuclear restraint. Adam Scheinman, the U.S. special representative of the president for nuclear proliferation, claims that China is expanding its nuclear arsenal while avoiding arms control. 

In these working papers, China did not specify the U.S., but did seem to allude to them when referencing “the relevant nuclear-weapon state” and urging them to abandon their arrangement of nuclear sharing. While not mentioned by name, the United States does have nuclear arrangements with Australia, Japan, NATO and South Korea. So many took that as a direct message to this country.