US President Donald Trump pledged, in his State of the Union address, to "modernize and rebuild" the US nuclear arsenal, making US nukes “so strong and powerful” to deter any aggression. The comment came days before the Pentagon was expected to release its Nuclear Posture Review Friday. A leaked draft of the document calls for building so-called low-yield nuclear weapons, which could be used against foreign aggressors not just in response to a nuclear strike but also potentially to a cyber attack. 

“The low-yield nuclear weapons… no recent American administration has supported this. This is a major departure in American foreign policy and nuclear policy, and that’s why I think it will be debated here in Washington quite vigorously,” said Dennis Wilder, Special Assistant to Former US President George W. Bush.

He quoted former Secretary of State George Shultz’s saying: Nuclear weapons are nuclear weapons. When you begin to use them, the danger of escalation is huge. 

Wilder thought Trump’s move is to counter Russia over nuclear weapons. “I think the Russians are the ones who have taken a step back from nonproliferation, not the United States. The United States is reacting to what the Russians are doing at the moment,” he said. 

He criticized Russia’s “escalate to deescalate” strategy. “One of the reasons the Trump administration is looking at this is because of some dangerous Russian thinking about being able to use tactical nuclear weapons in a war without escalation. They call it “escalate to de-escalate.” I think the logic of that is very flawed,” he said.

Fan Jishe, Director of the Institute of American Studies, at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences worried about the US’s plan to build up its nuclear arsenal. “If you want to keep that, build it up and you want to use that, other potential proliferators, like Iran and DRPK, will not be willing to give up the option of nuclear weapons. I don’t think it’s a responsible action for the United States to take,” Fan argued. 

Fan also talked about China’s stance on the use of nuclear weapons. “We truly believe that nuclear can only be used to deter nuclear attack and to retaliate against a nuclear attack. It’s not very much like a weapon for warfighting. The Chinese position is basically that nuclear is not usable at all,” he explained. 

Wilder thought there “hasn’t been enough discussion between the United States and China on the nuclear questions, or on strategic trust in this area.” He added that “Defense Secretary Mattis will be coming to Beijing in this Spring. I think this is an excellent topic for discussion.”