Politico | Chinese missile build-up has also strained US-Russia nuclear arms pact
- America’s nuclear treaty ultimatum is as much about China as it is Russia
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Gregory Hellman on politico.com on October 22, 2018.
US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of a landmark arms control treaty with Russia comes after nearly a year of appeals from top military leaders to confront China’s rising missile ambitions – perhaps the real target of the move.
Trump told reporters Monday outside the White House that Beijing's growing arsenal played into his decision to withdraw from the cold war-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, even though China is not a party to the pact.
His justification “includes China, and it includes Russia, and it includes anybody else that wants to play that game,” Trump said.
“You can’t do that. You can’t play that game on me,” he added.
Trump also restated the evidence that Moscow has been violating the treaty by deploying a banned weapon, a complaint his administration has voiced before.
But some US military officials have asserted for months that if China was unwilling to sign on to the treaty American forces will be “hamstrung” by Beijing’s growing arsenal of ground-based missiles – 90 per cent of which would be outlawed if it were a party to the treaty – and need the freedom to boost their own missile forces in the region.