ISTANBUL

China on Friday rejected the US demand that Beijing join a proposed trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiation, which also includes Russia.

“China’s nuclear forces are not in the same league as those of the US and Russia,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.

“It is neither fair, reasonable, nor realistic to ask China to join the nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage,” said Mao.

She was responding to a statement by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding that China join a nuclear control deal with the US and Russia.

“China has made its position clear on this matter on multiple occasions. As a country with a massive nuclear arsenal, the US bears a special and primary responsibility to earnestly advance nuclear disarmament, which represents the broad consensus of the international community,” Mao said.

In response to the Pentagon reportedly demanding an additional $12.6 billion in budget to spend on "improving" surveillance of China's military maneuvers, Mao said: “The US is using the so-called ‘China threat’ as a pretext to strengthen its military deployment in the Asia-Pacific, which is not conducive to regional peace and stability and does not serve the interests of countries in the region.”

She was responding to a question by Bloomberg that the Pentagon had sent a document to the US Congress over its plans to improve surveillance of China's military maneuvers, submarines, and satellites, and that the US is trying to counter the “unprecedented Chinese military buildup” in Asia.