China is firmly opposed to the new US plan to boost its missile defence capabilities, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson has told Sputnik.

“The American report is full of outdated ‘cold war’ and ‘zero-sum game’ concepts. The document exaggerates the geopolitical confrontation and rivalry of powers, and speaks unreasonably of a threat from China,” the spokesperson said.

Washington’s plans outlined in the new strategy are not constructive, the Foreign Ministry stressed, and “can damage regional peace and security, influence the process of international nuclear disarmament, lead to an arms race, and undermine the strategic balance and stability in the world.”

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From Alaska to Outer Space: Key Takeaways of New US Missile Defence Review

“China is expressing its extreme discontent and strong objection,” the spokesperson concluded.On Thursday, US President Donald Trump presented the country’s new missile defence strategy. The document outlines six major policy changes, and includes the deployment of new ground-based interceptors in Alaska, new radars and sensors to detect missile launches, and plans, over the long term, to shield every city in the United States with a missile defence umbrella consisting, in part, of space-based missile defence systems.

Trump’s policy is a throwback to President Ronald Reagan’s ‘Strategic Defence Initiative’, a program announced in 1983 and aimed at the deployment of offensive and defensive systems in space which would render the Soviet nuclear deterrent obsolete. The program proposed space-based combat lasers, orbital mirrors, neutron particle emitters and other objects, but was discarded as it was both technically impossible and deemed unnecessary following the end of the Cold War.