Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Friday that the United States, which advocates "America First" should lead by example and make cutting its own military spending a priority.
Guo made the remarks after US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he wants to restart nuclear arms control talks with Russia and China and that eventually, he hopes all three countries could agree to cut their massive defense budgets in half.
Noting that the US military spending accounted for 40 percent of global military spending in 2024, Guo said that the US is the world's largest military spender, surpassing the combined military spending of the next eight countries.
The US further increases its military spending to approximately $895 billion in its "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025", he added.
"If the US advocates 'America First', it should lead by example and make it a priority to cut its own military spending," Guo said at a regular news briefing.
The spokesman said that compared to military powers like the US, China's defense spending is relatively low, considering its proportion of GDP, its share of national fiscal spending, and per capita defense spending for both citizens and military personnel.
Noting that China is committed to peaceful development and a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, Guo said that facts have proven, and will continue to prove that China's limited defense spending is entirely out of the need to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests, and to maintain world peace.
Speaking of nuclear arms control, Guo said that it is the consensus of the international community that the US and Russia, as countries with the biggest nuclear arsenals, have an obligation to earnestly fulfill their special and primary responsibilities in nuclear disarmament.
The two countries have the obligation to drastically reduce their nuclear weapons and create necessary conditions for other nuclear-weapon states to join the nuclear disarmament process, he said.
The spokesman reiterated that China follows a policy of "no first use" of nuclear weapons and a nuclear strategy that focuses on self-defense. "China always keeps its nuclear strength at the minimum level required by national security and never engages in an arms race with anyone," he said.
Guo added that China is committed to supporting the multilateral arms control mechanism with the United Nations at its core and making contributions to global peace and security.
