On October 22, 2019, the First Committee of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York. Chinese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary for Disarmament Affairs Li Song comprehensively elaborated on China's stance on nuclear disarmament in his speech.

Li Song expressed, at present, the environment of global strategic security is undergoing complicated and profound changes with the international nuclear disarmament being severely impacted. The initiator is the United States (US). Returning to the Cold War mentality, the US has adopted a more aggressive nuclear strategy, undermined the international nuclear arms control system and lowered the threshold of using nuclear weapons. All these have given rise to the rising risk of a nuclear war and undermined the global strategic balance and stability.

Despite the negative development, the Chinese side advocates that the international community should stay committed to jointly building a community with a shared future for mankind and improve international security environment, advance nuclear disarmament process and reduce the risk of a nuclear war with concrete actions.

First, we should pursue common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security. All countries should abandon the Cold War mentality and the zero-sum game, fully respect each other's legitimate and reasonable security concerns, and eliminate any root causes of the possession and proliferation of nuclear weapons. China actively works on promoting exchanges on nuclear policies and strategies among nuclear-weapon states, views each other's strategic intentions from an objective perspective and improves strategic mutual trust.

Second, we should take measures to diminish the role of nuclear weapons in national security doctrines. China maintains that nuclear-weapon states should reiterate an important idea, namely, "nuclear wars can never be won and must never be fought", pledge with China the no-first-use of nuclear weapons and unconditionally commit not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states. In the mean time, nuclear-weapon states should refrain from expanding the scope of nuclear deterrence and abandon tailoring nuclear attack programs for certain countries.

Third, we should advance nuclear disarmament in a step-by-step manner, and adopt a fair and reasonable process of gradual reductions towards a downward balance. I would like to point out that as the country possessing the largest nuclear arsenals, the US should act in line with the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and other UN documents to earnestly fulfill its special and primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament, keep and renew US-Russia bilateral nuclear disarmament treaties and further reduce its nuclear weapons, so as to create conditions for multilateral nuclear disarmament process.

Fourth, we should adhere to the basic principle of nuclear disarmament, namely maintaining strategic balance and stability and undiminished security for all. The US deployment of a global missile defense system and pursuit of absolutely advantages in outer space will neutralize the nuclear deterrent capabilities of other states, undermine strategic balance and stability and hinder the efforts in nuclear disarmament. We urge the US side to abandon such practice.

Li Song stressed, China advocates the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons. China's nuclear policies and strategies are clear, consistent and highly responsible, and China has been as transparent as it can be about its nuclear policies and strategies. Such stance has been reiterated in the China's National Defense in the New Era issued recently.

China is committed to peaceful development and a defensive nuclear strategy. China undertakes not to be the first to use nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances, and unconditionally not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones. China is the only nuclear-weapon state that has made and always abides by these commitments. China has never deployed nuclear weapons abroad or participated in any form of nuclear arms race. It has always kept its nuclear forces at the minimum level required for national security and never threatened any country with a limited nuclear force that is defensive in nature. China will continue to actively promote and participate in the international arms control and non-proliferation process. These policy initiatives are important and positive contributions to international peace and security.

China attaches great importance to and actively participates in the preparatory process for the tenth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and is committed to strengthening the authority, universality and effectiveness of the NPT. China believes that the tenth Review Conference should be an important one that reviews the achievements of the NPT over the past half century and looks ahead to the development of the NPT in the next 50 years. China is ready to work with other member states to promote the NPT to make new contributions to maintaining world peace and promoting sustainable development. China has submitted a national report on the implementation of the NPT to the third session of the Preparatory Committee for the tenth Review Conference, and will submit an updated report to the Review Conference next year. During China's tenure as the coordinator of the P5 mechanism, it has actively promoted the P5 to safeguard the NPT mechanism. In January this year, the P5 successfully held a formal meeting in Beijing, where they agreed to make nuclear policy and strategy a permanent topic and reached broad consensus on strengthening the NPT mechanism.

China supports the purposes and objectives of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), has honored the commitment of moratorium and is committed to the early entry into force of the CTBT. This year, a number of certified monitoring stations in China signed post-certification activity contracts with the Provisional Technical Secretariat of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), and started the real-time data transmission, making positive contributions to the preparatory work for the implementation of the CTBT.

China always holds a positive attitude towards the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) and maintains that the Conference on Disarmament is the only appropriate venue for treaty negotiations, and that we should start relevant negotiations on the basis of a comprehensive and balanced work plan as authorized in the Shannon Report. The Chinese side supports the establishment of a subsidiary body of the Conference on Disarmament to continue its technical discussions on the FMCT.

China stands ready to work with the international community to continue making unremitting efforts towards the ultimate goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.