China hacked phones and wants nuclear first-strike ability against US: ex-Trump aide

Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster tells an event in Washington that the US must impose ‘very significant costs’ in response

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H.R. McMaster was Donald Trump’s national security adviser in 2017 and 2018. Photo: Reuters

Dewey Sim

Published: 6:00am, 10 Jan 2025Updated: 3:52pm, 10 Jan 2025

Corrected [2:39pm, 10 Jan, 2025]

[2:39pm, 10 Jan, 2025]
This story was amended to clarify that the event took place in New York and not Washington as originally stated.

A former senior aide to Donald Trump claimed China had tapped the president-elect’s phone, stolen “extraordinary” amounts of data and was preparing for a first-strike nuclear capability against the United States.

H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser from 2017 to 2018, told a think tank event in New York on Wednesday that the US must impose “very significant costs” on China for its “massive cyber intrusions”.

“They listen to President Trump’s phone and everybody around him for six months, right? They’ve stolen extraordinary amounts of data which we found on our telecom networks,” he told the event organised by the Council on Foreign Relations.

“I believe that’s what China is doing, and you might think I’m kind of crazy for saying this, but I think that China is laying the groundwork for a first-strike nuclear capability against the United States.”

First-strike capability refers to the ability to launch a pre-emptive nuclear attack in the hope of damaging or destroying an enemy’s nuclear arsenal to limit its ability to retaliate.

McMaster’s claims came two weeks before Trump’s return to the White House and amid growing concerns over China’s expansion of its nuclear stockpile and cyberattacks allegedly linked to Beijing.