Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said the US-led joint statement at the
Aug. 11 Geneva disarmament talks—criticizing a recent Pacific missile launch for
not following prior-notification norms and invoking the Hague Code of Conduct
against Ballistic Missile Proliferation—was a political insinuation aimed at
China. Guo called the move hypocritical and indicative of double standards,
urged those states to stop abusing multilateral arms-control mechanisms, and
said they should replace confrontation with sincere dialogue to create
conditions for arms-control exchanges.