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China Sends Nuclear Weapons In Pacific To Counter U.S.
China To Send Nuclear Armed Submarines Into Pacific Amid Tensions With U.S.
The Chinese military is poised to send submarines armed
with nuclear missiles into the Pacific Ocean for the first time,
arguing that new US weapons systems have so undermined Beijing’s
existing deterrent force that it has been left with no alternative.
They point to plans unveiled in March to station the US Thaad anti-ballistic system in South Korea,
and the development of hypersonic glide missiles potentially
capable of hitting China less than an hour after launch,
as huge threats to the effectiveness of its land-based deterrent force.
China has been working on ballistic missile submarine technology for more than three decades,
but actual deployment has been put off by technical failures, institutional rivalry and policy decisions.
Until now, Beijing has pursued a cautious deterrence policy,
declaring it would never be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict and
storing its warheads and its missiles separately,
both strictly under the control of the top leadership.
Deploying nuclear-armed submarines would have far-reaching implications.
Warheads and missiles would be put together and handed over to the navy,
allowing a nuclear weapon to be launched much faster if such a decision was taken.
The start of Chinese missile patrols could further destabilise
the already tense strategic standoff with the US in the South China Sea.
Growing concerns in the People’s Liberation army that China’s relatively small nuclear arsenal
(estimated at 260 warheads compared with 7,000 each for the US and Russia),
made up mostly of land-based missiles, is increasingly vulnerable to a devastating first strike,
by either nuclear or conventional weapons.
Missile defence is not their only worry. They are anxious about a new hypersonic glide missile
being developed under the US Prompt Global Strike programme,
aimed at getting a precision-guided missile to targets anywhere in the world within an hour.
China is developing a similar missile but officials in Beijing fear that the
Chinese nuclear arsenal is so small it could be almost completely wiped out without notice,
with the few missiles launched in reprisal being destroyed in mid-air by US missile defences.
Without that capability to respond with a “second strike”,
China would have no meaningful deterrent at all.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...nto-pacific-us
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