China warns US nuclear policy shifts raise global conflict risks

China has indirectly criticised the United States over its plans to revise nuclear policies, warning that maintaining large nuclear stockpiles and expanding deterrence capabilities heighten the risk of global conflict.

The comments appeared on November 27 in a new white paper on arms control issued by the State Council Information Office, as per Bloomberg.

The document’s release follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent statement that Washington would resume nuclear weapons testing to keep pace with rivals, after Russia announced trials of a nuclear-powered underwater drone and a nuclear-capable cruise missile. Trump said the U.S. would begin such tests “pretty soon.”

It remains unclear whether he was referring to the detonation of nuclear warheads — which would overturn decades of U.S. practice and break with the de facto global moratorium — or to renewed tests of delivery systems such as intercontinental ballistic missiles.

North Korea is the only country known to have tested a nuclear bomb this century; its last detonation took place in 2017.

The white paper also comes as Washington and Moscow continue to diverge on arms-control frameworks. The U.S. withdrew from a key Cold War-era nuclear disarmament treaty in 2019, accusing Russia of producing prohibited missiles. Trump argued at the time that the agreement was outdated because it did not include China, whose nuclear capabilities are expanding.

Although China possesses a smaller nuclear arsenal than the U.S. and Russia, American assessments say Beijing is rapidly growing and modernising its warhead inventory. China has not conducted a nuclear detonation since 1996 but continues to test nuclear-capable missiles — including an ICBM last year — as well as hypersonic warheads designed to evade interception.

In the white paper, Beijing reiterated that it has adopted an “extremely restrained” posture toward nuclear weapons development and will not enter a nuclear arms race. Still, China’s top ruling body signalled in October that it intends to “expand strategic deterrence capabilities” — a term that encompasses nuclear forces — over the next five years.

The document further criticised unnamed countries for advancing missile-defence initiatives, including Trump’s proposed “Golden Dome,” which aims to protect the U.S. homeland not only from limited strikes by rogue states but potentially from large-scale barrages by Russia or China. Defence experts have questioned the feasibility of such a system.

Separately, the U.S. and South Korea are engaged in private talks to co-develop nuclear-powered submarines for both countries’ navies. Admiral Daryl Caudle, chief of U.S. naval operations, said such submarines would help counter China’s rapidly expanding naval fleet.

By Tamilla Hasanova