A US admiral has said he would be prepared to launch a nuclear attack on China if President Donald Trump gave the order.

Pacific Fleet commander Scott Swift told a security conference in Australia that all members of US military had sworn an oath to obey the US President as commander-in-chief to defend the constitution.

Image: Chinese soldiers march during a military parade in Beijing in 2015

Answering the question, "Would you be prepared to launch a nuclear attack on China if ordered to do so by Mr Trump?" he said: "The answer would be yes".

Explaining his reasoning, he said: "This is core to the American democracy. 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."

:: Is Trump prepared for war with China?


Image: Donald Trump met with China's President Xi Jinping in Florida earlier this year

Later defending Mr Swift's response, Pacific Fleet spokesman Captain Charlie Brown said: "Frankly, the premise of the question was ridiculous.

"It was posed as an outrageous hypothetical, but the admiral simply took it as an opportunity to say the fact is that we have civilian control of the military and we abide by that principle."

:: Trump's N Korea dilemma: The five options

Image: Kim Jong-Un celebrates a missile launch with a military officer

Generally speaking, the relationship between America and China is friendly, despite disagreements over human rights, Tibet and North Korea.

In April, Mr Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for a high-profile summit in Florida.

Among other things, talks were expected to cover China making more effort to halt North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

At the time, Mr Trump said the two countries relations had made tremendous progress.

However, in July, Mr Trump expressed his frustration with China for continuing trade with North Korea and failing to apply pressure on Kim Jong-Un to halt the regime's programme.

He wrote: "So much for China working with us - but we had to give it a try!"

He went on to threaten North Korea with "severe things" after it tested an intercontinental ballistic missile which experts said could be powerful enough to reach Alaska.