China today said it was "concerned" over US President-elect Donald Trump's call to "greatly strengthen" America's nuclear capability, saying the country should instead take the lead in reducing the arsenal in order to facilitate disarmament.
"We are concerned. I reemphasise China's position on disarmament. We stand for and advocate full prohibition and destruction of nuclear weapons. The country with (the) largest nuclear arsenal should take special and prior responsibility in nuclear disarmament," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters here.
"China stands and advocates the full prohibition and destruction of the nuclear weapons," Hua said.
She was reacting to Trump's tweet yesterday in which he said "the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes", without explaining what he meant.
Asked whether Trump's remarks would spark nuclear arms race between the US, Russia and China, she said the country with largest nuclear arsenal should take on special responsibility for nuclear disarmament and take lead in dramatically reducing the nuclear arsenal to create conditions for it.
With more than 7,000 warheads, the US currently has the largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons, followed by Russia, the UK, France and China.
Trump's statement on nuclear weapons came a day after he met top generals from the Pentagon, including Air Force Lt Gen Jack Weinstein, deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration.
Current plans already call for spending USD one trillion over the next three decades to modernise and maintain the US nuclear arsenal.
In a statement, Trump's spokesman Jason Miller clarified that the President-elect was referring to the threat of nuclear proliferation and the critical need to prevent it - particularly to and among terrorist organisations and unstable and rogue regimes.
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Since his election, Trump has riled up China by holding telephone talks with Taiwanese President Tsai-Ing-wen who herself is toeing a hardline against Beijing.
Besides ashowdown on one-China policy under Trump presidency, Beijing also apprehends a trade war as he wants to bring about a parity of bilateral trade, which is heavily in favour of China.
China exports about USD 500 billion to US against USD 100 billion American exports to Chinese mainland.
Trump accuses China of devaluing its currency to gain more out of its exports.
Trump also questioned China's island building in the disputed South China Sea and his Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson said China should be stopped from accession the islands.
Hua also cautioned Trump against pulling US out of the Paris climate deal which Obama signed with lot of fan fare.
"On climate change, President Trump mentioned some adjustment of the energy policy in his inauguration speech. I won't comment on it. But on climate change, I can say that it is a shared challenge of all mankind and the Paris agreement is a milestone on global governance on climate change. It puts together international consensus, charts the course forward for the low carbon development," she said.
"It is an achievement that has not come easily and all countries should follow the trend, seize opportunities, take active actions implement the agreement for our future generations," she said, adding that China will continue to implement domestic policies and actions to address the climate change, promote multilateral process and international cooperation.
Hua, however, was guarded about any likelihood of a trade war between US and China under President Trump as a result of 'America First' policy.
"Whether we are worried about trade wars, we already spoke about earlier. I want to reiterate that China-US ties are mutually beneficial. Over the 40 years the two way trade has flourished. We have now closely connected interests," she said.
Referring to the 2015 report of theUS-China Business Council, she said the two way trade and investment between the two countries created about 2.6 million jobs for the US and contributed USD 216 billions to the US economy, which is 1.2 per cent of America's GDP.
The council also believed that the two way trade has boosted job creation in the US, helped to raise the people's living standards and maintained US strengths in global industrial chain, she said.
"Therefore trading wars or confrontation will produce no winners. It will harm the interests of both the parties. China and US work together on the basis of respect and mutual benefit,work together to uphold a fair trading, properly handle trade disputes and disagreements to maintain sustainable and stable economic relations between the two countries," she added.
