China slams U.S. as it joins global arms trade treaty at U.N.

By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS, July 6 (Reuters) - China on Monday joined a
global arms trade treaty spurned by the United States, taking a
swipe at U.S. President Donald Trump's administration by
accusing it of bullying, unilateralism and undermining efforts
to combat global challenges.
China's U.N. ambassador, Zhang Jun, said he had deposited
China's instrument of accession to the treaty, which regulates a
$70 billion global cross-border trade in conventional arms and
seeks to keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers.
China, which announced its plans in September, becomes the
107th party to the pact, approved by the U.N. General Assembly
in 2013. Then-U.S. President Barack Obama signed it, but it was
opposed by the National Rifle Association and never ratified by
the U.S. Senate.
Trump said in April last year that he intended to revoke the
status of the United States as a signatory. In July 2019, the
United States told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that
Washington did not intend to become a party to the treaty and
that it had no legal obligations from its 2013 signature.
Without naming the United States, but amid escalating
tensions between Beijing and Washington, Zhang said in a
statement that a "certain country ... walked away from
international commitments, and launched acts of unilateralism
and bullying."
"This has brought huge uncertainties to the global strategic
balance and stability, and seriously undermined the joint
efforts of all countries to tackle global challenges," he said,
adding that "major powers need to ... set an example by
contributing to safeguarding the international order, the rule
of law, the role of the U.N. and multilateralism."
The U.S. mission to the United Nations did not immediately
respond to a request for comment on Zhang's remarks.
China was the fifth-largest global arms exporter between
2014 and 2018, according to the Stockholm International Peace
Research Institute, although China itself does not publish
figures for how many arms it exports.