Hu Xijin, editor of the Chinese state-run newspaper the Global Times, has recently suggested enhancing China’s nuclear program would be vital to the country’s “strategic deterrence” against the United States.
“As the US strategic containment of China has increasingly intensified, I would like to remind again that we have plenty of urgent tasks, but among the most important ones is to rapidly increase the number of commissioned nuclear warheads, and the DF-41s, the strategic missiles that are capable to strike long-range and have high-survivability, in the Chinese arsenal,” wrote Hu in an article titled “Cornerstone of China’s strategic deterrence against the US: More Nuclear Missiles and Warheads.”
“The number of China’s nuclear warheads must reach the quantity that makes U.S. elites shiver should they entertain the idea of engaging in a military confrontation with China,” he said. “On this basis, we can calmly and actively manage divergences with Washington to avoid a minor incident sparking a war. U.S. hostility toward China is burning. We must use our strength, and consequences that Washington cannot afford to bear if it takes risky moves, to keep them sober,” wrote Hu, adding that Beijing must be ready for the “intense showdown.”
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The nuclear saber rattling comes amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Recently, Beijing was upset by the increasing credibility of the Wuhan Institute of Virology being responsible for the leak of SARS-CoC-2 virus that causes COVID-19. A mounting avalanche of evidence suggests that the institute conducted gain-of-function research to weaponize the virus by increasing its virulence and lethality. Beijing denies any such accusations, and blames the United States for developing the virus in its secret labs.
Meanwhile, President Biden ordered his intelligence community to get to the bottom of the COVID-19 origin by the end of summer.
According to the Australia-based Daily Telegraph, Hu gave his remarks on the Chinese Weibo social-media app, nearly immediately after President Biden called to redouble intelligence investigations of the virus origins.
Reportedly, Hu’s calls were also a reaction to the White House’s Indo-Pacific policy director, Kurt Campbell’s recent remarks that the era of Sino-American engagement had “come to an end,” and to be replaced with “dominant paradigm” of “competition.” Campbell also stated that “for the first time, really, we are now shifting our strategic focus, our economic interests, our military might more to the Indo-Pacific.”
Chinese frustration has also been increased by the U.S. stance on Taiwan.
The United States was blasted by China for the U.S. warship sailing on a couple of occasions through the sensitive waterway that separates Taiwan from China, with the latter, in an unprecedented move, increasing the number of its bombers and war jets flying over Taiwan since the beginning of 2021and fueling Taiwanese fears of a full-scale war.
A recent meeting between President Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, in which they explicitly stated the “preservation of peace and stability” on the Taiwan Straits was an important component of their regional strategy, was met with anger from Beijing, who warned the presidents “not to play with fire.”
Over the past decade, China has rapidly expanded its nuclear and conventional missile forces, nearly tripling its ballistic-missile production capability and deploying a wide array of nuclear and conventional missile systems, according to an intelligence assessment released by the U.S. State Department in January.
The department also notified Congress that it believes Beijing is close to violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by refusing to join the United States in nuclear arms reduction talks underway with Russia.
In 2020, the State Department reported that China may be conducting secret nuclear tests in violation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban of 1996.
While the report stops short of outright accusing China of violating the signed but not ratified pact, it does cite highly unusual activities that “raise concerns,” including “a high level of activity at its Lop Nur nuclear weapons test site throughout 2019.”
As a reaction to the alarming developments in the Middle Kingdom, President Joe Biden’s $715 billion Department of Defense budget will shift funding from old systems to help modernize the nuclear arsenal “to deter China.”
Also, the Department of Defense (DoD) has recently established a Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI) — specifically to counter China — which focuses on competition in the Indo-Pacific and aims to boost U.S. preparedness in the region through funding radars, satellites, and missile systems, and which will receive a major funding.
According to the DoD, “The Department is prioritizing China as the number one pacing challenge and has included the Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI) to emphasize elements within the FY 2022 President’s Budget request that bolsters deterrence and maintains our competitive advantage. The FY 2022 PDI features a $5.1 billion subset of the Department’s FY 2022 budget request, not a separate fund, in targeted investments for the Indo-Pacific region, which will be used to develop and procure defense capabilities in support of joint force lethality, especially in providing survivable strike and stand-off capability in a denied environment.”
Global Times has met the news with more calls to expand China’s nuclear arsenal and increase its budget to “match with the spending of the U.S.” “Facing a serious strategic threat from the US, China was urged to increase the number of nuclear weapons, especially its sea-based nuclear deterrent of intercontinental submarine-launched ballistic missiles, to deter potential military action by US warmongers,” Chinese military experts believe.
The confrontation with China intensifies into what appears to be a nuclear-arms race. Trump’s trade and tariffs wars with China, which aimed at reducing trade disparities among the countries, for which the ex-president was blasted by the media and liberal intellectuals, don’t seem so “aggressive” anymore.
While running for president, Biden continuously claimed he had some unique experience in dealing with China and would “force it to collaborate with the U.S.” He also wrote that “Our approach to China will focus on boosting American competitiveness, revitalizing our strengths at home, and renewing our alliances and leadership abroad… We’ll work to collaborate with China when it’s in our interest, including on public health and climate change.”
Yet so far, Biden’s brilliant diplomatic skills remain to be seen.
