On August 5, 2022, Chinese Ambassador for Disarmament Affairs Li Song delivered a keynote speech at the 10th Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (hereinafter referred to as the NPT), comprehensively expounding China's position on nuclear disarmament and severely denouncing the negative policy measures of the United States.

Li Song said, the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime faces the most complex and serious situation since the NPT's indefinite extension in 1995. Driven by the Cold War mentality, the United States has been obsessed with "major-power strategic competition", to seek absolute strategic advantage, strengthen its military alliance, stoke bloc antagonism and confrontation on the east and west sides of Eurasia and advance the forward deployment of nuclear missile and other strategic forces. These negative measures seriously undermine mutual trust among major countries, make strategies less balanced and less stable, create obstacles to the current international nuclear disarmament efforts, and increase the risk of nuclear arms race and conflict. The international community should take the 10th Review Conference of the Parties to the NPT as an opportunity to practice true multilateralism, firmly resist the Cold War mentality and bloc confrontation, uphold the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, have in-depth discussions on effective ways to advance the international nuclear disarmament process, and strengthen the authority and effectiveness of the NPT.

Li Song said that the United States and Russia with the largest nuclear arsenals should earnestly fulfill their special and primary historical responsibilities for nuclear disarmament, and further conduct significant and substantive reduction in their respective nuclear arsenals in a verifiable, irreversible and legally binding manner, so as to create conditions for the eventual realization of comprehensive and complete nuclear disarmament. The United States should give up the development and deployment of a global missile defense system, not seek to deploy ground-based intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific and Europe, abolish the nuclear umbrella and nuclear sharing policy, and withdraw all nuclear weapons deployed abroad to its own country. The international community should jointly oppose the replication of NATO's "nuclear sharing" arrangement by relevant countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Li Song stressed that China is firmly committed to the path of peaceful development and unswervingly pursues a national defense policy that is defensive in nature. It keeps to the stance that "we will not fight unless we are attacked, but we will surely fight back if we are attacked". China will resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and resolutely thwart external interference and separatist attempts for "Taiwan independence".

Li Song said, the purpose of China's development of nuclear weapons is to deter enemies from using nuclear weapons against China and to strike back resolutely against them in the event of a nuclear attack on China. Since the first day of possession of nuclear weapons, China has actively stood for the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons. China has clearly pledged not to use nuclear weapons first at any time or under any circumstances, and not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states and nuclear-weapon-free zones unconditionally. China always keeps its nuclear capabilities at the minimum level required for national security, does not compete with any other country in the input, size or scale of nuclear force, and never engages in any form of arms race.