China firmly rejects nuclear war and the spread of nuclear weapons, and has been making extensive efforts to promote global peace, said Lieutenant General He Lei earlier this week.
He, former vice president of the People's Liberation Army Academy of Military Sciences, sat down with China Global Television Network (CGTN) ahead of the 11th Beijing Xiangshan Forum to discuss the worldwide nuclear threat and current international conflicts, particularly the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Ukraine crisis.
In response to China's proposal of the no-first-use of nuclear weapons initiative in July this year, He elaborated on the country's stance towards nuclear threats from three key perspectives.
"My understanding of China's basic attitude towards nuclear war and nuclear weapons: First, we firmly oppose nuclear war and nuclear proliferation, because nuclear weapons and nuclear wars bring long-term disasters to mankind. Second, China has never been afraid of nuclear war. What is the purpose of China's development of nuclear weapons? It is to resolutely defend national security, break the nuclear monopoly, and effectively implement nuclear counterattacks. Our Academy of Military Sciences studies military terminology. I can tell you that China's nuclear forces act only as a nuclear counterattack, not as a nuclear attack," said He.
Regarding the ongoing conflicts in the world, especially the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Ukraine crisis, He said China firmly opposes wars, respects all parties' sovereignty and security, and actively promotes peaceful negotiations to resolve conflicts, adhering to the principles of de-escalation, no battlefield expansion, and no provocation.
"China has done a lot of effective work to ease these two conflicts. I think that China's attitude has several aspects. First, we do not want wars and we insist on resolving conflicts and disputes between countries through peaceful negotiations. Second, the sovereignty of all parties in the conflicts should be respected and their security should be guaranteed. We should insist on common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security. Third, we're making efforts in pursuing peace and promoting talks. China has done a lot of work in this regard. We should adhere to the three principles of cooling down the situation, namely, no expansion of the battlefield, no escalation of fighting, and no provocation by any party,”said He.
Initiated in 2006, the Beijing Xiangshan Forum is a high-level security and defense forum in the Asia-Pacific with significant international influence. The 11th edition of the forum, themed "Promoting Peace for a Shared Future",was held in Beijing from Thursday to Saturday.
China firmly opposes nuclear war, proliferation: lieutenant general
