US, Russia may ‘expand nukes’
Chinese experts downplay possibility of nuclear arms race
The US President-elect Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that the US should “strengthen and expand its nuclear capability” hours after a similar vow by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, raising concerns over a new arms race between the two nuclear superpowers.
However, Chinese experts said on Friday that there is little possibility that the two countries will start another round of nuclear arms race since both Trump and Putin would put national interest at first place and that China would remain unaffected.
“The US must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes,” Trump tweeted on Thursday.
Trump then told MSNBC on Friday that “let it be an arms race” and the US would win it.
Trump’s tweet came
after similar remarks by Putin.
According to a CNN report, Putin said in a defense speech in Moscow Thursday that Russia needs to “enhance the combat capability of strategic nuclear forces, primarily by strengthening missile complexes that will be guaranteed to penetrate existing and future missile defense systems.”
Putin then said on Friday at his annual press conference that there was nothing unusual on Trump’s remarks.
“During his election campaign he spoke about the necessity of strengthening the nuclear component of the US, to strengthen the armed forces,” Putin was cited in a AFP report.
Trump communications director Jason Miller released a statement to try to explain the president-elect’s tweet on nuclear capability.
He suggested that Trump was “referring to the threat of nuclear proliferation and the critical need to prevent it,” although that was not referenced in the tweet, CNN reported on Friday.
Miller also said that Trump was emphasizing the need to “modernize our deterrent capability.”
“Trump may suggest expanding the current nuclear arsenal in the US. There is little possibility for the US to develop more high-tech nuclear weapons with a limited budget,” Ni Feng, deputy director of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.
Ni said that the purpose behind the desires of the US and Russia to increase their nuclear capabilities may be to safeguard their current position as superpowers, rather than dragging themselves into another round of arms race.
The US currently has an estimated arsenal of about 7,000 nuclear warheads, second only to Russia, which has a few hundred more, according to AFP.
On Wednesday Trump met with a group of Pentagon brass including Vice Admiral James Syring, who heads the Missile Defense Agency. Their conversations centered on cutting costs of various military programs, and it was not known if Trump’s tweet was triggered by information the incoming president gleaned from the US officials, or by Putin’s comments, AFP reported.
“We could hardly make any conclusions based on Trump’s tweet, and the future trend of the relations between the US and Russia depends on Trump’s actual moves after he takes office in January,” Ni said.
The desires of Russia and the US to strengthen the nuclear capability is linked with the simmering anti-globalization trend, Gao Fei, a professor of Russian studies at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Friday.
In highlighting the nuclear capability, Trump and Putin were aiming to protect their national interest, Gao Said.
Little impact on China
“What the US and Russia are doing may have little influence on China’s consistent stance on the development of its own nuclear capability. We are always keeping the lowest nuclear capability to avoid any nuclear war,” said Gao.
He also noted that China did not participate in the nuclear arms races during the Cold War and has not been involved in the nuclear-disarmament talks between the two superpowers.
In 2010, Obama and Rus- sia’s then president Dmitry Medvedev signed the so-called new Strategic Arms Reduction treaty that calls for a significant reduction in the nuclear arsenals of both countries.
“No matter what other countries will do [on nuclear capability], China will always fulfill its responsibilities as a big country and try to cooperate with different countries in building new orders of globalization,” said Gao.
China issued its first white paper on military strategy in May 2015, underscoring that China will never enter into a nuclear arms race and pledges to continue to contribute to world peace, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
And in a white paper on China’s national defense released in 2011, China reaffirmed its policy of “no-firstuse of nuclear weapons at any time and in any circumstances.”