Biden’s China Policy: Weak

China’s nuclear-weapons program is in high gear. America’s ability to deter it is waning. The latest Pentagon report on Chinese military power says it likely will have 1,000 nuclear warheads of various types in the coming decade. It lends credibility to a call by the Chinese Communist Party publication the Global Times last year that argued for a 1,000-nuclear-warhead arsenal, saying “we just need to accelerate the steps that make it happen.” Recent Chinese nuclear saber-rattling against Japan and Australia suggests that China intends to use its nuclear arsenal to bully its neighbors.

“The accelerating pace of the PRC’s nuclear expansion may enable the PRC to have up to 700 deliverable nuclear warheads by 2027. The PRC likely intends to have at least 1,000 warheads by 2030, exceeding the pace and size the DoD projected in 2020,” the Pentagon report said.

JR

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John Rossomando

John Rossomando is a national-security analyst.

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China’s nuclear-weapons program is in high gear. America’s ability to deter it is waning. The latest Pentagon report on Chinese military power says it likely will have 1,000 nuclear warheads of various types in the coming decade. It lends credibility to a call by the Chinese Communist Party publication the Global Times last year that argued for a 1,000-nuclear-warhead arsenal, saying “we just need to accelerate the steps that make it happen.” Recent Chinese nuclear saber-rattling against Japan and Australia suggests that China intends to use its nuclear arsenal to bully its neighbors.

“The accelerating pace of the PRC’s nuclear expansion may enable the PRC to have up to 700 deliverable nuclear warheads by 2027. The PRC likely intends to have at least 1,000 warheads by 2030, exceeding the pace and size the DoD projected in 2020,” the Pentagon report said.