Jan. 16—Asked to respond to two questions, the first being the “Joint Statement of the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee (‘2+2’)” of the U.S. and Japanese defense and foreign ministers, about “China’s ongoing and accelerating expansion of its nuclear arsenal,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Wang Wenbin was direct: “China is firmly committed to a defensive nuclear strategy. We have honored our pledge to ‘no first use’ of 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 one among the five nuclear weapon states to have made these pledges…. For any country, as long as they do not use nuclear weapons against China, they have nothing to worry about being threatened by China’s nuclear weapons. This is the most meaningful transparency a country can provide.”