CCTV News: On the afternoon of May 8, Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, spokesperson of the Ministry of National Defense, released a message on recent military issues.
Reporter: NATO recently released its annual report saying that China has become a "systemic challenge" of NATO and has rapidly expanded its nuclear arsenal, and relevant policies threaten the interests, security and values of NATO member states. What is your comment on this?
Zhang Xiaogang: The relevant NATO report is full of Cold War thinking, exaggerating the so-called "China threat", which is completely disregarding the facts and finding the wrong target. China has no intention of challenging anyone, nor does it threaten anyone. China's nuclear policy is highly stable, continuity and predictability, and always pursues a nuclear strategy of self-defense and defense, maintaining nuclear power at the lowest level needed by national security.
In contrast, NATO has expanded its power in recent years and has been involved in the Asia-Pacific region, seriously undermining regional peace and stability. NATO has the world's largest nuclear arsenal through nuclear sharing arrangements. Some member states spend huge sums of money to upgrade their strategic forces and also plans to carry out cooperation on nuclear submarines involving the large-scale spread of weapon-grade nuclear materials to non-nuclear-weapon countries. The relevant practices seriously violate the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, seriously undermine the international nuclear non-proliferation system, and seriously impact global strategic security and stability. We urge NATO to examine its own problems more, rather than making a mistake out of nothing and slandering the blame.
