China has conducted the smallest number of nuclear tests among the nuclear-weapon states, according to a white paper issued Thursday by the Information Office of the State Council.

China has persistently exercised the utmost restraint on the scale and development of its nuclear weapons and has never taken part and will never take part in any nuclear arms race, says the white paper entitled China's Endeavors for Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation.

As a nuclear-weapon state, says the paper, China has never evaded its due responsibilities and obligations in nuclear disarmament and has always stood for the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons.

Right after its first nuclear test in 1964, the Chinese Government issued a statement, solemnly proposing to the governments of all countries the convocation of a world summit to discuss the issue of complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons.

To date, China has never deployed nuclear weapons outside its own territories. In the 1990s, China closed down a nuclear weapon research and development base in Qinghai Province.

Source: Xinhua