The United States on Monday accused China of dramatically expanding its nuclear arsenal and conducting secret nuclear tests, urging Beijing to be included in any future arms control treaty. Speaking at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, the US assistant secretary of state for arms control and nonproliferation Christopher Yeaw said the recent lapse of the New START treaty between the United States and Russia provides an opportunity to negotiate a “better agreement” that includes China, reported AFP.“Perhaps its greatest flaw was that New START did not account for the unprecedented, deliberate, rapid and opaque nuclear weapons build-up by China,” Yeaw said. “Despite its claims to the contrary, China has deliberately and without constraint, massively expanded its nuclear arsenal without transparency or any indication of China’s intent or end point.”Yeaw warned that Beijing could reach “parity within the next four or five years” and said China is on track to possess enough fissile material for over 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030. New START, which expired on February 5, had limited the US and Russia to 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads each. The expiration marks the first time in decades that no treaty constrains the positioning of the world’s most destructive weapons, raising concerns of a fresh arms race. Yeaw defended the treaty lapse, arguing that its numerical limits were “no longer relevant” given alleged Russian violations and claiming that Moscow had assisted “in boosting Beijing’s capacity to increase its arsenal size.”“The expiration arrived at a fortuitous time,” he said, adding that it allows US President Donald Trump to pursue his “ultimate goal of a better agreement.” Yeaw stressed that the US remains committed to arms control, stating: “Our goal is a better agreement toward a world with fewer nuclear weapons.”
