China revealed yesterday it was investigating a US newspaper report that Chinese atomic bomb plans had been discovered in Libya after being sent there from Pakistan, stopping short of denying the allegations.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue (
She said only that an investigation was under way into the report about transfers to Libya and reiterated China's opposition to proliferation of nuclear arms and weapons of mass destruction.
"China expresses its concern about the relevant reports. We are trying to learn more about the circumstances," Zhang told a news conference.
The Washington Post, citing government officials and arms experts, reported on Sunday that documents turned over by Libya yielded "dramatic evidence" of China's long-suspected role in transferring nuclear know-how to Pakistan in the early 1980s.
"The Chinese position is very clear-cut. China consistently has been opposed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons technology and supports the international community's efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation," Zhang said.
US officials told reporters they remained concerned about Beijing's missile exchanges with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, despite China's increased commitment to curbing arms proliferation.
Questions over non-proliferation were in the spotlight when US Undersecretary of State John Bolton, the top US non-proliferation official, met Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (
One of Bolton's goals was to persuade China to join the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a US-led plan to end the illegal trade in weapons of mass destruction and which aims to stop ships on the high seas with a particular focus on those from North Korea.
Chinese officials repeated their stance that while China backed PSI in principle, it had concerns about its legality, specifically when it came to the interception of shipments and "the consequences that might produce," Zhang said.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia denied on Monday that it was cooperating with China on missiles and might seek nuclear weapons from Pakistan.
A US official said in Washington that the Bush administration was "concerned about what the Saudis are getting from the Chinese in terms of missiles."
One US official said there was no evidence Pakistan had helped Saudi Arabia with a nuclear program, but another official said "there is always concern even if the information is flimsy."
The Saudi Press Agency said on Monday that a responsible source at the defense ministry "denied the Reuters report, the substance of which was that US officials believe that China is cooperating with the Kingdom over access to Chinese missiles."
A defense ministry official said the report was "fabricated and baseless, and reiterated that the kingdom continues to seek a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction," the agency said.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
RSS