China’s Growing Nuclear Arsenal Is A Bigger Threat Than A Spy Balloon, And The U.S. Helped Make It Possible

The sight of a Chinese spy balloon last week has forced many Americans to confront the security threat the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses to America’s homeland. The CCP has a growing stockpile, which is far more dangerous and deadly than the spy balloons. 

The number of nuclear warheads is the measure. China has at least 350 as of June 2022, far less than Russia’s 5,977 and the United States’ 5,428. Nonetheless, it is alarming to see China rapidly building up its nuclear arsenal.

A U.S. Department of Defense report last year predicted that “China would field a stockpile of about 1,500 warheads by 2035.” The Pentagon informed Congress at the end of the last month, just before the balloon made national news, “The number of land-based fixed and mobile ICBM launchers in China exceeds the number of ICBM launchers in the United States.” ICBM Intercontinental ballistic missile is an acronym that can reach targets more than 5,000 miles away. Whether by coincidence or design, during the balloon’s week-long “tour” It flew through Montana, the U.S. where there are more than 100 U.S. ICBMs.

One explanation of the CCP’s motive for rapidly growing its nuclear weapons stockpiles is that the CCP has witnessed how Russia’s possession of nuclear weapons has deterred Western democracies and the United States from directly engaging in a military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Should China’s People’s Liberation Army invade Taiwan, the CCP probably hopes its growing nuclear weapon stockpiles will also deter Taiwan’s allies, including Japan and the U.S., from coming to Taiwan’s rescue. Undoubtedly, China’s nuclear weapons threaten the security of the U.S. and its allies in Asia. 

What’s even more depressing is that the U.S. helped China build its nuclear weapons. The Wall Street Journal reported that the China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP), the nation’s top nuclear weapons research institute, has been able to acquire U.S.-made advanced semiconductor chips on the open market in the last two years to assist Chinese scientists’ research, which can have applications to China’s nuclear weapons program.

Many were shocked by this shocking revelation. The U.S. government placed such advanced semiconductor chips onto its export restriction lists and blacklisted CAEP. Entity listThis is an attempt to stop American firms selling semiconductor chips to CAEP. For decades, the majority of export controls were administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security. This is a U.S. Department of Commerce Division. Yet Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) analysis found that U.S. semiconductor exports to China increased between 2014 and 2018. The CSET’s research and the WSJ report prove that the Bureau of Industry and Security needs to administer and enforce export controls more effectively. 

Equally depressing is the Biden administration’s blind faith in denuclearization through an arms-control treaty. In 2010, President Obama signed an arms control agreement, also known as the New START with Russia. The treaty prohibits Russia and the United States from deploying more than 1,550 strategic nukes each.

There are many new STARTs FlawsIt is one of the most important.

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