Chinese social media users have reacted to US President Donald Trump’s nuclear testing announcement with surprise – and, in some cases, glee.
“Okay, okay, alright then. They’ll resume (nuclear testing), and we’ll do so too!” one user wrote on the Chinese platform Weibo.
Trump is currently meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea. Ahead of the meeting, Trump announced the US would begin nuclear testing immediately, in response to testing by rival countries – and singled out Russia and China as having the second and third largest supplies of nuclear weapons in the world.
“(We were) just waiting for them to make the first move; what happens after that will be beyond their control,” another Weibo user wrote.
Another poked fun at the US, writing: “Given the current state of the US, I’m afraid they might blow themselves up during the test.”
Underground nuclear testing was banned by the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). China and the US both signed the treaty, but they haven’t ratified it.
Last week, a top Chinese arms control official met with a leader of the CTBT commission. The official emphasized that “China supports the purposes and objectives of the (CTBT) and is willing to work with the international community to steadily advance the preparatory process for the implementation of the CTBT,” according to a news release by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.