One of the highest figures in the American military called it the most disturbing thing he’d seen in his 52 year career. In 2022, China announced that Beijing would triple its number of nuclear weapons by 2035.
The Department of Defense took that announcement seriously. In a recent report on “Military and Security Developments”[i] in China, it said “If China continues the pace of its nuclear expansion, it will likely field a stockpile of about 1,500 warheads by its 2035 timeline.” By contrast, the US has 5,428 nukes. And Russia has 5,977.[ii]
On Tuesday, March 28th, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall testified at a hearing before the House Appropriations Committee. He said, “I don’t think I’ve seen anything more disturbing in my career than the Chinese ongoing expansion of their nuclear force,” And that’s saying something. Kendall’s career has spanned more than half a century, from his West Point graduation in 1971 to the present.
“For decades,” Kendall said, the Chinese “were quite comfortable with an arsenal of a few hundred nuclear weapons, which was fairly clearly a second-strike capability to act as a deterrent.”
Kendall explained, “That expansion that they’re undertaking puts us into a new world that we’ve never lived in before, where you have three powers — three great powers, essentially — with large arsenals of nuclear weapons.”
Kendall understated the matter.
Not only is China going for global dominance, but it is doing it the smart way. It is bringing with it its alliance, the Axis of Evil, an Axis that includes three nuclear powers and is about to include four—China, Russia, North Korea, and, soon, Iran.
The West also has four nuclear powers—the United States, England, France, and Israel. So why is the Chinese buildup so disturbing?
Kendall’s observation that, in the past, China kept nuclear weapons only to deter a first strike, implies something ominous. With 1,500 nuclear warheads, China would be positioned for a preemptive strike, a first strike. A surprise attack.
One of the top publications on politics and international affairs, The Hill, has speculated that the Chinese surprise attack might be something of a kind we’ve never seen before. It would be an attack with hypersonic missiles launched by rockets that reach space, then drop their hypersonic vehicles on a 932-mile glide path. These rockets and other Chinese hypersonic weapons could travel at up to nine times the speed of sound. And they could glide so low and maneuver so slickly that they could evade every kind of defense we’ve ever built.
Which means, said Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, chief of staff of the Congressional EMP Commission, China could hit us with “a nuclear pearl harbor.”[iii]
A nuclear attack that could wipe out all of our 160,000 forces in the Pacific, in Guam, in the Philippines,[iv] in Japan, and in South Korea. And an attack that would use nuclear missiles to take out all three of our aircraft carriers in the Pacific.[v]
For a simple purpose. To take Taiwan. And something more. To establish China as the most feared and respected power in the world.
We would not respond with nuclear weapons out of fear of having our cities destroyed. The Chinese nuclear castration of America would be cheered by China’s “friendly nations” and “strategic partners” in “the global south,” in Central Asia, Africa and South America.
And the shock and awe would establish China as the number one nation on earth. With the United States as a pathetic has been.
How do we prevent this? With big budgets for the development of hypersonic missile defense. And with what Frank Kendall recommends, open lines of communication with Russia and China.
To prevent a nuclear war from starting by accident.
References:
U.S. Department of Defense, Military And Security Developments Involving The People’s Republic Of China, 2022, https://media.defense.gov/2022/Nov/29/2003122279/-1/-1/1/2022-MILITARY-AND-SECURITY-DEVELOPMENTS-INVOLVING-THE-PEOPLES-REPUBLIC-OF-CHINA.PDF
https://nypost.com/2021/11/17/top-general-china-could-spring-surprise-nuke-attack-on-us/
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/dec/1/china-rapidly-building-space-arms-blind-and-deafen/
https://www.foxnews.com/world/china-hypersonic-weapons-surprise-nuclear-attack-us
https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1153727888/the-us-philippines-american-military-presence
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/15/asia/us-aircraft-carriers-pacific-china-intl-hnk-scli/index.html
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-defense-officials-china-is-leading-in-hypersonic-weapons/7000160.html
______
Howard Bloom of the Howard Bloom Institute has been called the Einstein, Newton, and Freud of the 21st century by Britain’s Channel 4 TV. One of his seven books–Global Brain—was the subject of a symposium thrown by the Office of the Secretary of Defense including representatives from the State Department, the Energy Department, DARPA, IBM, and MIT. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Psychology Today, and the Scientific American. He does news commentary at 1:06 am Eastern Time every Wednesday night on 545 radio stations on Coast to Coast AM. For more, see http://howardbloom.institute.
[i] ) U.S. Department of Defense
MILITARY AND SECURITY DEVELOPMENTS
INVOLVING THE
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
[ii]https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywashburn/2023/02/24/russia-has-the-most-nuclear-weapons-in-the-world-here-are-the-other-countries-with-the-largest-nuclear-arsenals/
[iii] https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/528844-a-nuclear-pearl-harbor-in-our-future/
[iv] https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1153727888/the-us-philippines-american-military-presence
[v] https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/15/asia/us-aircraft-carriers-pacific-china-intl-hnk-scli/index.html