US de-facto engages in 'nuclear proliferation' in Asia — Chinese special envoy

The United States is de-facto engaged in nuclear proliferation in the Asian region, including due to its unlawful transfer of nuclear submarines to Australia, Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Korean Peninsula Affairs Liu Xiaoming has told TASS in an interview.

"As far as Australia is concerned, the United States and the United Kingdom have unlawfully transferred submarines to Australia. In essence, this constitutes nuclear proliferation, and that is why it is a threat to stability in this region. In fact, this shows that the US is the biggest troublemaker in the sphere of peace and security," he said.

According to the Chinese official, "the United States has publicly declared its readiness to create a strategic ‘wall’ around China," the official added.

"They have put forward the Indo-Pacific strategy, pretending to promote peace and transparency, but in reality this is just an attempt to pull together small groups and formats to restrain China’s development," Liu Xiaoming said.

"In North-East Asia, the United States, South Korea and Japan are holding large-scale military exercises that stir tensions on the Korean peninsula. And in Southeast Asia, the United States is also holding joint military exercises with the Philippines, with the participation of 12,000 US US servicemen. The United States continues its provocations in the South China Sea as well," he added.

Moreover, Liu Xiaoming continued, "the Americans are playing the Taiwanese card and use Taiwan for deterring China, stirring tensions in the Taiwan Strait."

At the same time, China is "earnestly following the path of peaceful development, conducts defensive military policies, and, through its practical actions, defends international peace, joint development and creation of the humanity’s common future."

"On the one hand, we need to promote development on the basis of joint discussion, joint use and joint implementation," he said. "But, on the other hand, we also have do defend our sovereignty, our development and security interests through practical action."

"In a nutshell, we need peaceful development on one side, while on the other side we need to create a powerful army of a global level, to defend sovereignty, territorial integrity of our country and all our achievements in the sphere of development," Liu Xiaoming said. "This is very important for our region and the entire world.".[TASS]