Voices

“We must view and perceive the issue of climate security from the perspective of national security， and deal with climate change with the right approach， so as to promote sustainable socioeconomic development and safeguard world peace and security.”

China Meteorological Administration director Zheng Guoguang made these remarks during an interview with Study Times.

He said that Chinas degree of warming was “at an obviously higher rate” than the global average. For instance， the nations ground surface temperature has risen by 1.38oC over the past 60 years， averaging 0.23oC per decade and doubling the global average. Against the backdrop of global warming， the risks faced by Chinas large-scale engineering projects， such as the Qinghai-Tibet Railway， the Three Gorges Dam， and the plan to divert water from southern to northern provinces， have increased.

“China， as a staunch champion of the nuclear disarmament process， stands for complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons and has faithfully fulfilled its nuclear disarmament obligations under the Treaty. Over the decades， China has pursued a nuclear strategy of self-defense and kept its nuclear arsenal at the minimum level required for its national security. China has neither deployed nuclear weapons in any other country， nor taken part in any form of nuclear arms race. Among nuclear-weapon states， only China has pledged unconditionally not to be the first to use nuclear weapons and not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states.”

Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong made this statement at the general debate at the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons on April 27.endprint