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China will not engage in a nuclear arms race with any country and will always maintain its nuclear forces at the minimum level necessary to ensure national security.

This was stated by the spokesman of the country's Ministry of National Defense, Senior Colonel Tan Kefei.

According to China's policy, the country must not be the first to use nuclear weapons "never under any circumstances" nor "use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states and nuclear-weapon-free zones," he stressed.

The United States has the world's largest nuclear arsenal, is making huge investments in upgrading its nuclear weapons, and is developing small-capacity nuclear weapons, the Chinese military official also noted.

His comments came after the US Strategic Command reported that Beijing has more land-based ICBMs than Washington.

In 2021, the Pentagon said that the number of Chinese nuclear warheads could grow to 700 within six years and could reach 1,000 by 2030. The latest report from last year indicated that China currently has about 400 nuclear warheads, and that number could rise to 1,500 by 2035.

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