China has denied US President Donald Trump’s claim that it is secretly conducting nuclear weapons tests, rejecting the allegation and calling it “completely false.”
Responding to Trump’s remarks made during a CBS interview on Sunday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Monday that Beijing maintains a self-defensive nuclear strategy and follows its moratorium on nuclear testing.
“As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a nuclear-weapon state, China adheres to a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons, maintains a self-defensive nuclear strategy and has honoured its commitment to suspend nuclear testing,” Mao said, as quoted by Global Times.
She added that China supports the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and called on the United States to “abide by its own obligations” under the same treaty. “We hope the United States will also maintain its moratorium on nuclear testing and contribute to global stability,” she stated.
In his interview, Trump claimed that several countries, including Russia, China, North Korea, and Pakistan, were already conducting nuclear tests, suggesting that the United States should resume its own testing programme.
“Russia’s testing and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it. We’re an open society. Other countries are testing. We’re the only country that doesn’t test,” Trump said on CBS’s 60 Minutes.
“We’re going to test because they test and others test. And certainly North Korea’s been testing. Pakistan’s been testing,” he added.
Trump made these remarks when he was asked about his decision to “detonating nuclear weapons” after more than 30 years following Russia’s recent trials of advanced nuclear-capable systems, including a Poseidon underwater drone.
“You have to see how they work. The reason I’m saying testing is that Russia announced that they were going to be doing a test. If you notice, North Korea is testing constantly. Other countries are testing. We’re the only country that doesn’t test. And I don’t want to be the only country that doesn’t test,” Trump stated during the interview.”We’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do,” he added.
Trump also claimed that the US possesses “more nuclear weapons than any other country,” adding that he had discussed denuclearisation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.”We have enough nuclear weapons to blow up the world 150 times,” Trump said. “Russia has a lot of nuclear weapons, and China will have a lot. They have some. They have quite a bit.”
Earlier on Thursday, Trump announced the immediate resumption of nuclear weapons testing, citing Russia’s recent trials of advanced nuclear-capable systems, in what marks a major escalation between the two nuclear powers.
Before boarding Air Force One, Trump said that while denuclearisation would be a “tremendous thing”, restarting American nuclear testing after more than three decades was “appropriate”.”They seem to all be nuclear testing,” Trump told reporters, referring to Russia and China.
“We have more nuclear weapons than anybody. We don’t do testing… but with others doing testing, I think it’s appropriate that we do also,” he added.
He further stated that the preparations were already in place for testing, without specifying the timing or location. When asked whether renewed testing could make the global nuclear landscape more volatile, he responded, “I think we have it pretty well locked up.”
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law terminating the already defunct plutonium disposal agreement with the US, which had been aimed at limiting the production of nuclear weapons-grade material. The 2000 pact required both nations to dispose of 34 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium no longer needed for military purposes.
