China has again rejected attempts by the Biden administration to improve relations through diplomacy, this time on nuclear weapons.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said last week that the global agreement governing the proliferation of nuclear weapons was weakening, and invited Russia and China to the table for further negotiations on the issue.But China is not interested in immediate talks, CCP told semaphore in a statement.

🟡 Scoop: China rejects nuclear talks with US as it seeks to beef up its own arsenal. @Jay Solomon reporthttps://t.co/TfVaeE7vuU

— Semafor (@semafor) June 9, 2023

“China’s nuclear arsenal is far from equal to that of the United States and Russia. It is not ready yet.” [Beijing] Participate in the nuclear arms control negotiations that some have proposed,” said Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington. “China upholds a defensive nuclear policy. Our country has pledged not to use nuclear weapons first, and has maintained its nuclear arsenal at a minimal level in accordance with national security needs.”

Russia also turned down Sullivan’s offer. The Russian government said Russia could not participate in arms control negotiations with the United States as long as the United States maintained a “hostile” stance toward Russia in Ukraine, the newspaper reported.

Sullivan warned that the world was at a “tipping point” with regard to nuclear security and stability. He said China is on pace to expand its nuclear warhead stockpile from about 400 now to about 1,500 by 2035, still far below the US’s roughly 4,000 warheads. added.

Sullivan pushed back against Republicans’ claims that the United States needed more nuclear weapons to compete with Russia and China. Rather, he said, the right path would be to modernize and replace America’s current nuclear arsenal.

“I would like to make it clear here that the United States does not need to build its nuclear arsenal beyond the combined strength of its competitors in order to successfully deter them,” he said. (Related article: China planting new ‘Trojan horse’ inside key U.S. ally Saudi Arabia)

The scolding from China is just the latest diplomatic loss to China for the Biden administration. The Chinese Communist Party recently announced that it would not hold a meeting with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, even though Secretary of State Anthony Brinken was reportedly planning to reschedule and visit Beijing in the coming weeks. bottom.

President Joe Biden said in May that he expected the relationship with China to “melt quickly.”