My Take | US sounds nuclear alarm as it finds yet another ‘China threat’
- Washington may well outnumber Beijing when it comes to warheads and is prepared to use them first, but why let facts get in the way
Here we go again. The Pentagon has warned that China is expanding its nuclear arsenal and is ready to nearly quadruple the number of warheads it has by 2035, thus rapidly closing its gap with the United States.
That’s the latest US defence department “assessment”. It’s not clear Beijing actually aims to have 1,500 nuclear warheads by the middle of the next decade. But even if it does, that would still be less than half of what the United States currently possesses. Meanwhile, Pentagon generals can wave their report and warn the American public of another “China threat”.
Actually, they don’t need to convince the American public; they just need to convince Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress that controls funding. And that’s almost always a foregone conclusion.
The Heritage Foundation report continues: “In FY 2022, the Biden administration, supported by Congress, advanced the comprehensive modernisation programme for nuclear forces that was initiated by President Barack Obama and continued by the Trump administration … Because such modernisation activities require consistent, stable, long-term funding commitments, this continued bipartisan support has been critical.”