How the U.S. Should Deter China’s Nuclear Ambitions
While recent advances in the size and sophistication of the Chinese arsenal are worrying, the U.S. should avoid a destabilizing arms race.
China's arsenal could double in size over the next decade.
Photographer: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images
After decades of sustaining a relatively modest nuclear arsenal, China is moving swiftly to build more and better doomsday weapons. The trend would be dangerous at any time. But given the precipitous decline in relations with the U.S., a catastrophe is becoming all too likely. Both sides need to restore stability to this relationship before the world faces a devastating new nuclear-arms race.
China’s amped-up nuclear ambitions have been hard to miss in recent months. Satellite images suggest it has been building fields of new intercontinental ballistic missile silos. It has deployed ICBMs that are harder to target and faster to launch. It is bolstering its fleet of ballistic-missile submarines and developing nuclear-capable bombers. More exotic weapons, including a hypersonic glider it reportedly tested over the summer, might one day evade U.S. missile defenses. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley described the tests as “very close” to a Sputnik moment. The Pentagon predicts that China’s stockpile of operational warheads will more than double by 2030.