The US expresses “deep concern” over expansions in China’s nuclear arsenal
The United States has expressed deep concern over the rapid growth of China’s nuclear arsenal, a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expressed deep concern about the rapid growth of China’s nuclear arsenal, saying it “clearly shows Beijing’s sharp deviation from its decades-old nuclear strategy of possessing minimal nuclear deterrence.”
On Friday, Blinken participated in the virtual meeting with the foreign ministers of the 26 participating countries in the ASEAN Regional Forum (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Forum), the Secretary-General of the ASEAN Organization, and the High Commissioner of the European Union in the ministerial meeting of the 28th session of the ARF, which is hosted by the ARF.
Satellite images showed in late July that the Chinese government had dug a new site for what appeared to be 110 nuclear missile launchers, about 1,200 miles (about 2,100 km) west of the capital, Beijing, which angered the United States, as this base that is being built Its construction underground, according to the American newspaper “New York Times”, is the second of its kind revealed by analysts studying satellite images in recent weeks.
This disclosure expresses a “tremendous expansion of China’s nuclear arsenal,” which represents a Chinese desire to possess an economic and technological superpower that shows that it is ready to possess a nuclear arsenal the size of Washington’s or Moscow’s.
Outside experts estimate China’s minimum nuclear deterrent at about 300 missiles, but Beijing has not disclosed its stockpile since it conducted its first nuclear test in the 1960s. In return, Washington keeps its assessments of the number of Chinese nuclear missiles a secret.
Washington, which is facing a growing Chinese influence, seeks to show its interest in East Asian countries and maintain its commitments to them, and to address the issue of Myanmar, whose military government has the support of Beijing.
