BEIJING, China (Reuters) — China said on Friday (December 23) its government was paying attention to President-elect Donald Trump’s Twitter post where he called for an expansion of the United States’ nuclear capabilities.
BEIJING, China (Reuters) — On Thursday (December 22) Trump tweeted that “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes,” but gave no further details.
It was not clear what prompted his comment. However, earlier on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia needed to “strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces.”
In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying reiterated the government’s stance on the abolition of nuclear weapons.
“We have noticed the relevant reports, and are also paying attention to what policies the new U.S. government will adopt on the relevant issue. China always upholds and actively advocates the complete ban and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons. Countries that have the largest nuclear weapons stockpiles have a special and top priority to, at the end of the day, create conditions for the complete abolition of nuclear armaments and ought to keep taking the lead in making large, substantive cuts to nuclear weapons,” she said.
The United States is one of five nuclear weapons states allowed to keep a nuclear arsenal under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The others are Russia, Britain, France and China.
Trump, who was elected on November 8, campaigned on a platform of building up the U.S. military but also pledged to cut taxes and control federal spending.
During the next decade, U.S. ballistic missile submarines, bombers, and land-based missiles – the three legs of the nuclear triad – are expected to reach the end of their useful lives. Maintaining and modernizing the arsenal is expected to cost about $1 trillion over 30 years, according to independent estimates.
