China Reiterates Firm Opposition to US NMD Program

China Tuesday voiced again its firm opposition to the National Missile Defense (NMD) program of the United States.

When answering a question at a press conference this afternoon, Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi urged the US to go along the trend of the time, carefully listen to the just appeal of the international community, and completely abandon its anti-missile plans at an early date.

Sun said that the US development of advanced anti-missile systems, in the form of the NMD or the Theater Missile Defense (TMD), is designed to ensure its own absolute security and the freedom of action, and to seek a US-led mono-polar world.

He said that such an attempt will undermine the global and regional strategic balance and stability, and get the process of international arms control and disarmament and anti-proliferation deadlocked, and even reverse the process and lead to a new round of arms race in the world.

"The prospects of the matter are detrimental to all the countries," he said.

Many countries have expressed concerns about the US attempt to develop anti-missile systems, and some of its allies also expressed doubt and unrest, Sun said, adding that such an attempt is also opposed by Americans.

"All these demonstrate that the US anti-missile plans are unpopular," the spokesman stated.



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