Guo said China, as a “responsible nuclear-weapon state” and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has maintained its long-standing nuclear test moratorium and upheld its no-first-use policy on nuclear strikes.

President Donald Trump on Thursday vowed to begin testing US nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with Russia and China, heralding a potentially major shift in decades of US policy at a time of growing tensions between the world’s nuclear-armed superpowers.

Beijing has been expanding its arsenal, and distrust between China and the United States over nuclear weapons has deepened, with little hope of an agreement.

In spite of the DEW weapons’ promise, they are still years away from completion—while China is prepared to make war in the Indo-Pacific almost immediately.

S EVEN YEARS ago, when America’s trade war with China was just getting started, the Chinese science and technology ministry did something unusual. Its official newspaper, which usually confines itself to puff pieces about China’s accomplishments,