Donald Trump has called for global nuclear disarmament after his latest trade tariffs prompted China to say it would fight in “any type of war”. The US president backed denuclearisation “because the power of nuclear weapons is crazy”, pinpointing China and Russia as two countries that pose the biggest threat. are belived to be modernising and expanding their nuclear capabilities.
He said: “It would be great if everybody would get rid of their nuclear weapons. I know Russia and us have by far the most. China will have an equal amount within four to five years. It would be great if we could all denuclearise because the power of nuclear weapons is crazy.” This comes after the Republican ignited a trade war with Beijing, hiking tariffs on imports of Chinese products to 20% across the board. A range of Chinese goods were already subject to 10-25% tariffs imposed during his first term.
The Chinese embassy in Washington responded on X: “If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end.”
The Foreign Ministry also released a blistering statement shortly after the tariffs took effect. It said China would fight “to the bitter end” if the US “persists in waging a tariff war, a trade war, or any other kind of war”.
Beijing accused the Trump administration of “blackmail” after he blamed the tariffs on the US fentanyl crisis, adding that China has some of the strictest anti-drug laws in the world.
The Foreign Ministry added: “Intimidation does not scare us. Bullying does not work on us. Pressuring, coercion or threats are not the right way of dealing with China.”
This is not the first time Mr Trump has called for tighter arms controls, particularly when it comes to nuclear weapons. He said in February: “There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons – we already have so many.
“You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they’re building nuclear weapons.”
He also previously said one of the first meetings he wanted to set up as president was with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin to persuade them to slash their military spending.
He said: “One of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia. And I want to say, ‘Let’s cut our military budget in half’. And we can do that. And I think we’ll be able to.”
