00:00Capping off a whirlwind Asia trip with a nuclear surprise.
00:06U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered new tests of U.S. weapons after a 33-year freeze.
00:11It's been decades since the world's three leading nuclear powers, Russia, the U.S., and China, have done nuclear tests.
00:18The sudden order came just before a meeting with China's President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
00:23While in the air Thursday, Trump told reporters about his thinking.
00:26It had to do with others. They seem to all be nuclear testing.
00:31We have more nuclear weapons than anybody. We don't do testing.
00:35We've halted it years, many years ago.
00:38But with others doing testing, I think it's appropriate that we do also.
00:43Arms monitors generally agree it's actually Russia, not the U.S., that has the world's biggest nuclear arsenal.
00:49And while Moscow has recently tested a nuclear-powered torpedo and a nuclear-capable cruise missile,
00:54post-Soviet Russia has never done a nuclear test.
00:59The Kremlin suggested Trump may be misinformed,
01:02and said that Russia won't take the return of U.S. tests after so many years lightly.
01:08The U.S. is a sovereign country, which has the right to make its sovereign decisions.
01:13But I want to recall President Putin's statement, which has been repeated many times.
01:18If someone departs from the moratorium, Russia will act accordingly.
01:24China says it hopes the U.S. tests won't go ahead.
01:28Beijing's doubled its arsenal over the past five years,
01:30and last year launched an ICBM over the Pacific.
01:34But it, too, stopped nuclear testing in the 1990s.
01:37And now, it's appealing to a test-ban treaty the U.S. has signed, but never ratified.
01:42The U.S. has signed, but never ratified the U.S. has signed, but never ratified the U.S.
02:01At the United Nations, strong rejection of Trump's plan.
02:05The global body says tests not only heightened the risk of a disastrous conflict,
02:09but have also caused harm.
02:10Outcry over testing's impact to human health and the environment
02:14is one reason why it's largely stopped since the 1990s.
02:18The Secretary General has repeatedly asserted that current nuclear risks
02:21are already alarmingly high,
02:24and all actions that could lead to miscalculation or escalation
02:27with catastrophic consequences must be avoided.
02:30And as he has said, we must never forget the disastrous legacy
02:34of over 2,000 nuclear weapons tests carried out over the last 80 years,
02:38and that nuclear testing can never be permitted under any circumstances.
02:45This doesn't seem likely to sway the U.S., with Vice President J.D. Vance saying
02:50it's just about making sure the arsenal still works like it's supposed to.
02:54The Russians have a large nuclear arsenal.
02:56The Chinese have a large nuclear arsenal.
02:57Sometimes you've got to test it to make sure that it's functioning and working properly.
03:01We've been working very closely, even with nations that we don't have the best relations with,
03:06to try to limit nuclear proliferation.
03:08The president's going to keep on working on that.
03:10But analysts say the U.S. can check up on its arsenal without having to explode anything.
03:16This has led some to think what Trump actually meant to say
03:19was that the U.S. would test nuclear delivery platforms,
03:22like the missiles that carry warheads.
03:24But one analyst warns that if Trump does indeed intend to restart explosive testing,
03:29it could hand China a big opportunity.
03:33China has done less than 100 nuclear tests.
03:36And a lot of Chinese experts and officials have pointed out that China might be at a disadvantage
03:41in terms of knowledge of its arsenal and weapons designs,
03:44because it just doesn't have as much testing data.
03:47And so if the taboo against nuclear testing was broken,
03:50if there was a return to more nuclear tests,
03:54China stands to gain way more from this than the United States would.
03:58Trump's policy pronouncements can often be hard to parse,
04:01at least until more official information is publicly available.
04:05But now, after a long lull,
04:07it seems a new age of nuclear testing could be on the way,
04:10with the end result hard to predict.
04:13Andy Xue and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.
04:16Aisoo –
04:29Aisoo –
04:31Aisoo –
Comments