Beijing vows to counter deployment of U.S. missiles
BEIJING — China said Tuesday that it “will not stand idly by” and will take countermeasures if the U.S. deploys intermediaterange missiles in the AsiaPacific region, which Washington has said it plans to do within months.
The statement from the director of the foreign ministry’s Arms Control Department, Fu Cong, follows the U.S. withdrawal last week from the IntermediateRange Nuclear Forces Treaty, a move Fu said would have a “direct negative impact on the global strategic stability” as well as security in Europe and the AsiaPacific region.
Fu said China was particularly concerned about announced plans to develop and test a landbased intermediaterange missile in the AsiaPacific “sooner rather than later,” in the words of one U.S. official.
“China will not stand idly by and be forced to take countermeasures should the U.S. deploy intermediaterange groundbased missiles in this part of the world,” Fu told reporters at a briefing.
He also advised other nations, particularly South Korea, Japan and Australia, to “exercise prudence” and not allow the U.S. to deploy such weapons on their territory, saying that would “not serve the national security interests of these countries.”
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in Asia over the weekend that he wanted to deploy midrange conventional missiles in the AsiaPacific region within months. Australian officials said Monday that the locations for the bases were not yet known but their country would not be one of them.
But speaking to reporters traveling with him to Tokyo on Tuesday, Esper said it would take “a few years” to achieve initial operation of missiles in the region.
“I have never asked anybody about the deployment of missiles in Asia,” he said when asked about his meetings in Australia and New Zealand.
Fu also said China had no intention of joining nuclear weapons reduction talks with the U.S. and Russia, pointing to the huge gap in the size of China’s arsenal compared to those of the other two. China has an estimated 290 nuclear warheads deployed, compared to 1,600 for Russia and 1,750 for the U.S., according to the Federation of American Scientists.