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 | Tuesday, April 25, 2000, updated at 14:49(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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China Not to Be First to Use Nuclear Weapons: OfficialChina's development of nuclear weapons is solely for the purpose of self-defense and it has taken a very restrained attitude towards nuclear weapons development, a senior official told a U.N. conference to review Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Monday.China has unconditionally undertaken not to be the first to use nuclear weapons and not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones, head of the Chinese delegation to the conference Sha Zukang said. China has never avoided its responsibilities and obligations in nuclear disarmament and has been advocating the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons, Ambassador Sha said. He emphasized that there are two basic prerequisites for China to participate in any arms control negotiations: these negotiations and the treaties or agreements reached must not undermine the global strategic balance and stability, or China's important strategic security interests. The month-long conference will be addressed by foreign ministers or senior officials on how to promote the implementation of the NPT reached in 1970 with a total of 187 signatories now. The treaty prohibits direct or indirect transfer of nuclear weapons by nuclear states to non-nuclear-weapon states, and commits non-nuclear-weapon states to not conducting research on or manufacturing or receiving nuclear weapons. At the opening session Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan painted a somber picture on global disarmament: some 35,000 nuclear weapons remain in the nuclear arsenals with thousands of them on hair-trigger alert, while much of the multilateral disarmament machinery has started to rust due to the lack of political will to use it.
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