Category: United States

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-07-08/China-will-not-join-U-S-Russia-arms-control-negotiations-RXADOSEvIY/index.html China has no interest in joining the US-Russia negotiation on nuclear arms reduction given the huge gap between the nuclear arsenal of theirs and China’s, and China has the need to improve its military capabilities.

China on Wednesday stressed that it has no plans to join the U.S. and Russia in their talks to renew a nuclear arms control treaty.

Recently, U.S. officials have been making a lot of noises about China joining the U.S.-Russia negotiation on nuclear arms. They even went so far as to tweet a staged photo.

Washington and Moscow began talks last month to try to extend the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), which they signed in 2010. It will expire next year.

Fu Cong, Director-General of the Department of Arms Control of the Chinese Foreign Ministry reiterated China’s position during a press conference to share China’s policy mainly on arms control issues, noting that China has no interest in joining Russia and the U.S. in their bilateral negotiations.

Given the huge gap between the nuclear arsenal of China and those of U.S. and Russia, it is unrealistic to expect China to join the two countries in a negotiation aimed at nuclear arms reduction, Fu said.

The world has changed dramatically over the past few decades and is trending today toward greater complexity and diversity. The popular “clash of civilizations” theory proposed by Samuel P. Huntington is somewhat too simple for modern society. However, this thought is now coming back to life, and might even be unilaterally implemented into policy practice in the United States toward China. Kiron Skinner, the U.S. State Department’s policy planning head, has reignited this discussion with her recent observation that China is “not Caucasian” at a recent event. Her broader remarks made clear that the U.S. State Department taking pains to prepare for a “clash of civilizations” with China.

From once a “economic competitor” to now a rival on the level of civilization, what is behind these perceptions in the U.S. bureaucracy toward China?

To understand that, it is first necessary to get a taste of the policymakers in the American government today. These practitioners who cope with China on a day-to-day basis at both the policy and implementation levels see China as more energetic, assertive, and less reserved over the past few years. But they are missing memories of a time when China was weak and poor, mainly due to the process of internal generational replacement.