US President Donald Trump’s administration has discussed holding the first US nuclear test since 1992 as a potential warning to Russia and China, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
One analyst told the newspaper that if a test were to go ahead, it would be seen as the “starting gun to an unprecedented nuclear arms race.”
The report, citing a senior administration official and two former officials, all who spoke anonymously, said the discussion had taken place at a meeting on Friday last week.
It came after some US officials reportedly claimed that Russia and China were conducting their own low-yield tests.
Moscow and Beijing have denied the claims.
The senior administration official said that demonstrating Washington’s ability to “rapid test” would be a useful negotiating tactic as the US seeks a trilateral agreement with Russia and China over nuclear weapons.
The meeting did not conclude with any agreement and the sources were divided over whether discussions were ongoing.
Nuclear non-proliferation advocates condemned the idea.
“It would be the starting gun to an unprecedented nuclear arms race,” Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, told the Washington Post.
It would also likely “disrupt” negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, “who may no longer feel compelled to honor his moratorium on nuclear testing,” Kimball said.
The report came a day after Trump announced that he plans to withdraw from the Open Skies treaty with Russia, which was designed to improve military transparency and confidence between the two nations.
It is the third arms control pact Trump has abrogated since coming to office.
Russia has insisted that it will abide by the 18-year-old agreement, which seeks to lower the risk of war by permitting each signatory country’s military to conduct a certain number of surveillance flights over another member country each year on short notice.
European nations have also urged Trump to reconsider.
Trump has also significantly hardened his rhetoric against China in recent weeks, repeatedly criticizing Beijing’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which first emerged there.
He has made repeated threats of retaliation against the chief US economic rival, which has denied his accusations.
Earlier this month, Trump called for involving China in new arms control talks with Russia, telling Russian President Vladimir Putin that they need to avoid a “costly arms race.”
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique