China vows countermeasures if US deploys missiles in Asia

China said Tuesday it “will not stand idly by” and will take countermeasures if the US deploys intermediate-range missiles in the Indo-Pacific region, which it plans to do within months.

The statement from the director of the foreign ministry’s Arms Control Department, Fu Cong, follows the US’s withdrawal last week from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a move Fu said would have a “direct negative impact on the global strategic stability” as well as security in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

Fu said China was particularly concerned about announced plans to develop and test a land-based intermediate-range missile in the Asia-Pacific “sooner rather than later,” in the words of one US official.

“China will not stand idly by and be forced to take countermeasures should the US deploy intermediate-range ground-based missiles this part of the world,” Fu told reporters at a specially called briefing.

He also advised other nations, particularly South Korea, Japan and Australia, to “exercise prudence” and not allow the US to deploy such weapons on their territory, saying that would “not serve the national security interests of these countries.”

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in Asia over the weekend that he wanted to deploy midrange conventional missiles in the Asia-Pacific within months. Australia previously said the locations for the bases were not yet known but it would not be one of them.

Fu also said China had no intention of joining nuclear weapons reduction talks with the US and Russia, pointing to the huge gap in the size of China’s arsenal compared to those of the other two. China has an estimated 290 nuclear warheads deployed, compared to 1,600 for Russia and 1,750 for the US, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for urgent arms control talks to prevent a chaotic arms race following the treaty’s demise. He also said Monday that Russia would only deploy new intermediate-range missiles if the United States does.

China has already shown “maximum restraint” in developing its arsenal and stuck to its policy that it would not be the first to use a nuclear weapon in a conflict, Fu said.

“I don’t think it is reasonable or even fair to expect China to participate in an arms reduction negotiation at this stage,” Fu said, but added that China remained committed to multilateral efforts to reduce nuclear stockpiles such as the UN’s Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, although it has yet to ratify that agreement.

Fu wouldn’t elaborate on what countermeasures China was considering taking against the US, saying only that “everything is on the table,” although he did say China has never and would never take part in a nuclear arms race.

Nor would he say how China might retaliate against countries that hosted US land-based intermediate-range missiles, although China has in past used economic means to retaliate against South Korea over its deployment of a US anti-missile defense system known as THAAD.

Fu dismissed US arguments for leaving the INF as “pure pretext,” saying Washington was merely looking for an excuse to develop new weapons. If it truly believes Russia is cheating on the treaty, as it says, than the way forward is to negotiate rather than withdraw, Fu said.

Meanwhile, Washington’s argument that it is threatened by China because 80 percent or more of Chinese missiles fall into the intermediate-range category doesn’t hold up, since those missiles would be unable to reach the continental US

“So the US would be the least to worry if that is the case,” Fu said. “That shows that all of this is nothing but a pretext.”

They would have been banned under the INF Treaty signed by Russia and the US in 1987. It expired Friday, with Washington saying it withdrew because of Russia’s alleged violations of the pact. Russia denies breaching the terms.

The end of the INF Treaty comes amid rising doubts about whether the two countries will extend an agreement on long-range nuclear weapons scheduled to expire in 2021 known as New START. President Donald Trump said he has been discussing a new agreement to reduce nuclear weapons with China and Russia.

“And I will tell you China was very, very excited about talking about it and so was Russia,” Trump told reporters. “So I think we’ll have a deal at some point.”

Asked about Trump’s comments, Fu said he didn’t wish to contradict Trump, but repeated that China “has no interest and, frankly, we don’t think we are even in a position to participate in a trilateral negotiation aimed at a nuclear arms reduction.”