China Rejects Trump’s Proposal for Nuclear Disarmament Talks With US, Russia

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Aug 28, 2025 - 10:00 Updated: Aug 28, 2025 - 09:54
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China Rejects Trump’s Proposal for Nuclear Disarmament Talks With US, Russia
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China has poured cold water on President Donald Trump’s suggestion that it join the United States and Russia in talks to downsize their nuclear arsenals, dismissing the idea as unrealistic.

The Chinese regime rejected the proposal on Aug. 27, two days after Trump told reporters that Washington and Moscow were discussing ways to reduce the number of nuclear weapons and that he hoped Beijing would also take part.

Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun signaled at a press conference that China won’t join the disarmament negotiations, adding that the primary responsibility lies with the United States.
Trump raised the subject earlier this week while fielding questions in the Oval Office alongside South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. Trump said nuclear arms control had been discussed at his Aug. 15 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, and that he wanted China brought into the process.

“One of the things we’re trying to do with Russia and with China is denuclearization, and it’s very important. ... Denuclearization is a very big game, but Russia is willing to do it, and I think China is going to be willing to do it too,” he said.

“We cannot let nuclear weapons proliferate. We have to stop nuclear weapons.”

The push for expanded talks comes as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, better known as New START, is set to expire on Feb. 5, 2026. With the collapse of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, New START is the only remaining nuclear arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow.

The 10-year treaty, which began in 2011 and was extended by five years in 2021, limits each side to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and strategic bombers. It also caps the total number of missile launchers and bombers at 800 and provides for extensive on-site inspections.

Negotiations for a successor treaty are expected to be difficult, as Russia has indicated it wants NATO’s other nuclear-armed members, namely the United Kingdom and France, included in future talks.

The United States and Russia each hold more than 5,000 warheads, while China is estimated to have at least 600 nuclear warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute—up from around 500 in 2024. France maintains a stockpile of about 290 warheads, while the UK holds around 225.

“Depending on how it decides to structure its forces, China could potentially have at least as many ICBMs as either Russia or the USA by the turn of the decade,” the Institute said in an analysis, noting that even if China reaches the upper projection of 1,500 warheads by 2035, that figure would still represent only about one-third of each of the current U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles.

The first Trump administration had sought to bring China into nuclear arms reduction talks, but that effort was also rejected by the Chinese regime.

In June 2020, Marshall Billingslea, then the U.S. special presidential envoy for arms control, clashed with Chinese officials online when he posted a photo on social media platform Twitter—now X—of empty seats that appeared to be reserved for China at a negotiating table, after Beijing did not send any representative to Vienna to join U.S.-Russia discussions on extending or replacing New START.
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The post prompted a furious response from Fu Cong, head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Arms Control Department, who said that the United States had no right to mark the seats with Chinese flags without Beijing’s consent. The Russian ambassador to Austria later posted photos of the event, showing that seats were filled and no Chinese flags were displayed during the talks.
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