BEIJING, October 23. /TASS/. China won’t yield to any form of blackmail and for this reason Washington should act with prudency in pressing for its demand China should join the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news briefing on Tuesday when asked by TASS to comment on US President Donald Trump’s statement that the INF treaty should apply not just to Russia and the United States, but to China as well.

"In their comments on the United States of America’s unilateral pullout from the INF Treaty, US officials, [including White House National Security Adviser John Bolton] have repeatedly mentioned China. Yesterday, I already expressed China’s stance on this issue. The INF Treaty, signed by the United States and the Soviet Union, is a bilateral agreement. Now the United States is quitting it unilaterally and is speaking about other countries. It is very hard to grasp the meaning of such statements."

"In its defense policy, China adheres to the principle of protecting its interests in the field of security. We won’t tolerate blackmail in any form. Once again, we urge the United States to stop going against the flow. It is necessary to think thrice and take action only after that," Hua said.

Speaking at a news briefing on Monday, Trump said that the INF should apply to China as well. He reaffirmed his intention to push ahead with his decision announced on Saturday that the United States would ditch the agreement

The INF agreement and Trump’s statement

On October 20, Trump declared that the United States would quit the INF Treaty, because Russia was allegedly in breach of the agreement. He speculated it might be possible to conclude another treaty on intermediate and shorter-range missiles with Moscow and Beijing on the conditions they promised to stop developing such weapons.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov described that decision as a dangerous move. In addition, Berlin and Beijing criticized Washington, yet London came out in support of it and NATO pinned the responsibility for Trump’s decision to quit the arms deal on Russia, which, the alliance argues, violates the treaty

The INF Treaty was concluded on December 8, 1987 and took effect on June 1, 1988. It applied to deployed and non-deployed ground-based missiles of intermediate range (1,000-5,000 kilometers) and shorter-range (500-1,000 kilometers). In recent years, Washington has repeatedly accused Russia of violating the treaty. Moscow has strongly dismissed these accusations and addressed the United States with its own claims over Washington’s non-compliance.