In an attempt to justify a return to nuclear testing, the US president claims that China and Russia secretly conducted nuclear weapons tests.
China denies secretly conducting nuclear weapons tests, refuting US President Donald Trump’s claims.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning insisted on Monday that Beijing had not broken an informal moratorium on nuclear tests that had been in place for decades.
President Trump claimed on Sunday that not only China but also Russia, North Korea and Pakistan are conducting secret underground tests. He made comments calling on the United States to resume testing.
In response to a question about Trump’s claims, Mao said China was “keeping its promise to halt nuclear tests.”
“As a responsible nuclear-weapon state, China is committed to peaceful development, follows a ‘no first use’ policy of nuclear weapons and a nuclear strategy emphasizing self-defense, and adheres to a moratorium on nuclear tests.”
He also said Beijing is calling on the United States to maintain a moratorium on nuclear tests, following President Trump’s sudden announcement on Thursday that he had ordered the Pentagon to resume testing “immediately.”
China expects the United States to “take concrete actions to uphold the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime and maintain global strategic balance and stability,” Mao continued.
“The only country that doesn’t test”
President Trump made claims about secret nuclear tests without providing evidence in a television interview with CBS.
“Both Russia and China are conducting tests, but they are not talking about it,” he said.
“I don’t want to be the only country that doesn’t test nuclear weapons,” he continued, adding North Korea and Pakistan to the list of countries said to have conducted weapons tests.
The United States has not had a nuclear explosion since 1992. North Korea is the only known country to have carried out a nuclear explosion over several decades. Russia and China report not conducting such experiments since 1990 and 1996, respectively.
However, Russia announced last week that it had tested a new nuclear-powered cruise missile, the Burevestnik, and a nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable underwater drone.
“System test”
Confusion has arisen over President Trump’s sudden announcement in a social media post that he had ordered the U.S. military to begin testing minutes before his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In response to a direct question about whether the United States plans to detonate a nuclear weapon for the first time in more than 30 years, President Trump told CBS: “I said we would test nuclear weapons just like other countries do, and that’s exactly what I said.”
The same day, the U.S. Energy Secretary downplayed suggestions that it meant a nuclear explosion.
“I think the experiment we’re talking about right now is a system test. It’s not a nuclear explosion,” Chris Wright said in an interview with Fox News.
“These are what we call ‘non-critical explosions.’ So we would be testing all the other parts of the nuclear weapon to make sure they provide the proper geometry and cause a nuclear explosion,” he said.
