China has rejected US President Donald Trump’s call for Beijing to participate in nuclear disarmament negotiations, describing the request as unfair, unreasonable, and impractical.

The response comes amid renewed discussion of reducing nuclear arsenals among the world’s major powers.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Friday that China’s nuclear capabilities remain far below those of the United States and Russia.

She argued that Washington, as the country with a massive nuclear arsenal, should first fulfill its special and primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament.

“China’s nuclear forces are at a completely different level from those of the United States and Russia,” Mao told reporters.

“As the country possessing a massive nuclear arsenal, the US should earnestly fulfill its special and primary responsibility for nuclear disarmament. This is the broad consensus of the international community,” she said.

Mao was responding to Trump’s remarks in a Newsmax interview, in which he said Washington was holding consultations with both Russia and China on denuclearization.

Trump also claimed that China was expanding its nuclear arsenal and could catch up with the United States and Russia within five years. No detailed information has been released about the scope or progress of any such discussions.

Trump’s comments came shortly after the expiration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), the principal arms-control agreement limiting the US and Russian nuclear arsenals.

Under the treaty, which was signed in 2010 and extended until 2026, both sides committed to deploying no more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads — accounting for roughly 90 percent of the world’s total — and a maximum of 700 long-range missiles and bombers.

Russia blames US for decision to suspend New START treaty

Russia says it has concluded that the United States has been in violation of the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty.

Russia said the United States violated New START, noting that Washington has taken actions that undermine Russian national security. President Vladimir Putin has called on Washington to refrain from steps that would prevent Russia’s return to the treaty.

In 2019, the United States also withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which had banned intermediate-range land-based missiles.

Concerns over nuclear risks have grown internationally as the United States has expanded its nuclear deployments in recent years, modernized its arsenal, planned to station nuclear weapons in additional NATO states, and floated proposals to extend its nuclear umbrella to Taiwan.

The aggressive US actions in the past few years have also added to concerns, as the Trump administration launched unprovoked aggression against Iran, targeting civilian infrastructure and threatening to destroy the Iranian "civilization."