China warns U.S.

BEIJING, APRIL 14. China today warned that it may be forced to review its nuclear policy or take counter measures if the United States took unilateral steps that undermined Beijing's legitimate security interests.

``China will not sit back and watch its legitimate security interests undermined without taking counter measures,'' China's non-proliferation official, Mr. Sha Zukang, told the State-run China Daily newspaper.

Mr. Sha, Director-General of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Department of Arms Control and Disarmament, said recent U.S. actions may force China to review its policies on a wide range of arms control and non-proliferation issues. The U.S. action, he said, is its development of the National Missile Defence (NMD) system and its proliferation of an advanced Theatre Missile Defence (TMD) system in North-East Asia and Taiwan.

China thinks the TMD is aimed to contain China and also to provide a missile shield to Taiwan, which Beijing views as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland at an early date.

Mr. Sha criticised the U.S. for advancing its overwhelming first- strike capability while quickly developing a NMD system capable of neutralising any possible counter-strike from a smaller nuclear-capable state.

- PTI

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