Will nuke China if Trump orders

The US Pacific Fleet commander, addressing a security conference in Australia, said in answer to a question yesterday that he would be prepared to launch a nuclear strike on China if President Donald Trump so ordered.

The fleet spokesman later said the question was asked as an "outrageous hypothetical".

Admiral Scott Swift was speaking at the Australian National University in Canberra when he was asked whether he would be prepared to launch a nuclear attack on China if ordered to do so by Trump.

"The answer would be yes," he said.

Swift said that all members of the US military had sworn an oath to obey officers and the US president as commander in chief to defend the constitution.

"This is core to the American democracy," he said, in a recording of the event obtained by Reuters.

"Any time you have a military that is moving away from a focus, and an allegiance, to civilian control, then we really have significant problems."

Swift's answer reaffirmed the principle of civilian control over the military and was based on an "outrageous hypothetical" in the question, Pacific Fleet spokesman Captain Charlie Brown told Reuters.