Vice Admiral David Kriete, Deputy Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, at a press briefing reported in The Beacon (August 1, 2019), expressed concern at China's rapidly growing nuclear arsenal when combined with other alarming activities in the South China Sea and elsewhere. He said "China is and has been for the last couple of decades on a very clear trajectory where they're increasing the numbers of nuclear weapons that they field, they're increasing the number of and diversity of the delivery systems." he added "They are working on fielding a triad—ballistic missile submarines, strategic bombers, and land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles." Kriete also questioned China's declared no-first-use policy, the statement that Chinese military forces would not be the first to use nuclear arms in a conflict. He said "When it comes to the no-first-use policy, I have read about this no-first-use policy. Beyond that statement, they don't talk much about it, so I'm not exactly sure what it is."