As the US military is focused on China, Pentagon officials are inflating the threat of Beijing to justify more spending and expansion in Asia. Last week, the deputy commander of US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) claimed China will soon surpass Russia as Washington’s top nuclear threat.
“There’s going to be a point, a crossover point, where the number of threats presented by China will exceed the number of threats that currently Russia presents,” Lt. Gen. Thomas Bussiere told an online forum on Friday.
China’s nuclear arsenal is estimated to be somewhere between 300 and 350 warheads, while the US and Russia each possess around 6,000, give or take a few hundred. But Bussiere insists it is not the size of China’s arsenal that makes them a threat, but how they’re “operationally fielded.” He said he believes China will overtake Russia as a nuclear threat “in the next few years.”
Bussiere said Beijing could be more of a threat because the US and China don’t have any nuclear treaties or dialogue mechanisms on the issue. The US has tried to include China in arms control talks with Russia. But Beijing has no interest in trilateral arms control due to its much smaller nuclear arsenal.
The best thing the US could do to engage China on nuclear arms control is work with Russia to dismantle warheads, something Bussiere and STRATCOM have no interest in. STRATCOM is the military command that oversees the US arsenal, and its officials need new threats in order to justify the nuclear modernization plan. The US plan to modernize each leg of the nuclear triad could cost up to $1.5 trillion.
China needs only uhhh … estimates vary bit, but…
6375 – 320 = 6055 more nukes to catch up with Russia, give or take 30.
Chinese missiles are usually kept on a low alert status, separated from launch vehicles like missiles. Of course they would say that.
– Russia, 6,375 nuclear warheads
– The United States of America, 5,800 nuclear warheads
– France, 290 nuclear warheads
– China, 320 nuclear warheads
– The United Kingdom, 215 nuclear warheads
– Pakistan, 160 nuclear warheads
– India, 135 nuclear warheads
– Israel, 90 nuclear warheads
– North Korea, 30-40 nuclear warheads
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-with-nuclear-weapons
https://armscontrolcenter.org/fact-sheet-chinas-nuclear-arsenal/
Only 100, 15 kiloton Hiroshima-sized nukes are needed to destroy the world.
Average nuke strength today, based on the U.S. arsenal, is 100 to 170 kilotons.
https://www.wired.com/2011/02/nuclear-war-climate-change/
Seems like a bad idea to encourage China to build more nukes over there just to have a pretext to build more nukes over here.
Isreal 300 nukes.
This generals’ job is to make up threats so Congress keep funding nuclear war (his $250 billion/year business as about 1/3 of the military industrial complex) and does not pursue multilateral nuclear disarmament. Given his bias and conflict of interests, don’t believe a word he says. As recently as June 2021, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China support MND and Putin said these same in 2017. Biden should put an offer on the table for the US to do likewise and get us out of the foolish and dangerous Cold War nuclear war game.
WE are the biggest threat. Having used two of them against Japan, we know a thing or two about evil.
The only nuclear threat is from the USA .