According to reports, senior Chinese officials criticized Russia for nuclear threats. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang reportedly spoke of the “irresponsibility” of nuclear rhetoric during a summit in Cambodia on Sunday. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior US government official told reporters that Mr Li “spoke rather extensively about China’s policy towards Ukraine”. Mr. Li “placed a clear emphasis on sovereignty, on the irresponsibility of nuclear threats, on the need to ensure that nuclear weapons are not used in the way that some have suggested,” the official said. The US official said there is “definitely some discomfort in Beijing about what we’ve seen in terms of reckless rhetoric and activity on the part of Russia”.
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“I think it’s also undeniable that China is probably surprised and even a little embarrassed by the conduct of Russian military operations,” they added. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang / Shigeru Nagahara/Getty Images The comments came ahead of a summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday. At the summit, superpower leaders agreed that “a nuclear war must never happen” and cannot be won, “and underlined their opposition to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine,” according to the White House. In September, Russia began bolstering the idea that it might use nuclear weapons as it laid the groundwork for its illegal annexation of areas of southern and eastern Ukraine, saying Ukrainian attacks against them would be seen as a threat to Russia’s national security. is repelled by all available means. Reports earlier this month claimed that Russian leader Vladimir Putin worried Western leaders after he mentioned the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during a conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron. Putin reportedly opined that the bombings – which brought about the surrender of the Japanese and the end of World War II – showed that “you don’t have to attack the big cities to win.” Putin has previously warned that if Western powers threaten the “integrity” of Russian territory then “we will certainly use all the means at our disposal”, adding: “This is not a bluff”.
