China has responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s order to the U.S. military on the resumption of nuclear weapons testing after a 33-year hiatus.
President Trump made the surprise announcement on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, October 30, while aboard Marine One en route to a trade negotiation meeting with Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea.
He said he was instructing the Pentagon to test the U.S. nuclear arsenal on an “equal basis” with other nuclear powers.
“Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately,” Trump posted.
“Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years.”
China Urges US to Honor Nuclear Test Ban Commitments
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, in response, said that China hopes the U.S. will abide by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
He added that Beijing expects Washington to honor its commitment to a moratorium on nuclear testing and to uphold global strategic balance and stability.
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This comes after Guo had earlier reiterated that China remains committed to a self-defense-oriented nuclear policy, as Beijing certified two new nuclear test monitoring stations.
Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) Preparatory Commission, visited China last week at Beijing’s invitation to attend the launch ceremony marking the certification of two auxiliary seismic facilities in Shanghai and Xi’an.
In 2026, China will mark the 30th anniversary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which bans all nuclear explosions.
Guo Jiakun Says China Remains Committed to a No-First-Use Nuclear Policy
Both China and the United States are among the countries that have signed but not ratified the agreement.
Still, both countries have adhered to the treaty’s principles, with neither known to have conducted a full-scale nuclear weapons test since the CTBT’s signing in 1996.
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Each country hosts at least a dozen CTBTO-certified monitoring facilities on its soil as part of the organization’s global verification network.
“In recent years, China and the [CTBTO Provisional Technical Secretariat] have achieved significant cooperation outcomes in areas such as promoting the certification and acceptance of monitoring stations and enhancing capacity building for developing countries,” Guo Jiakun said on Monday.
“This demonstrates China’s consistent stance of earnestly fulfilling its international obligations and firmly supporting the Treaty.”
Guo said China, as a “responsible nuclear-weapon state” and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has maintained its long-standing nuclear test moratorium and upheld its no-first-use policy on nuclear strikes.
China is one of only two nuclear-armed nations—alongside India—to have officially pledged not to use nuclear weapons first.
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