The US fears the rise of China’s nuclear arsenal

The difficulty, already accentuated by the respective positions in the geopolitical and commercial fields, between the US and China, risks a dangerous worsening due to the concerns expressed by Washington for the nuclear proliferation carried out by Beijing, in the context of the strengthening of the nuclear weapons of the army Chinese. China’s great power aspirations, according to the Communist president and government, can also materialize through the increase of the nuclear arsenal, which has become central to the country’s military tactical policy. American analysts have identified the construction of a series of silos for the launch of nuclear warheads, located in various Chinese regions. Currently, Beijing’s nuclear warheads would be estimated at about 350 units, a quantity still much lower than the availability of countries such as the United States and Russia, in particular Washington would be in possession of about 4,000 warheads, equal to 90% of all nuclear weapons present on the planet; however, according to the Pentagon, the Chinese increase would be considerable, given that until a year earlier there were 200 Chinese heads: an increase, therefore, of 150 units in 365 days. One aspect that worries the American Congress is the way in which China is secretly proceeding with its nuclear weapons development plan, a matter that Beijing considers strategic for being able to compete globally, especially with the US, but also with regional adversaries such as the ‘India. This situation, which places China at the center of international political attention, comes at a time when Moscow and Washington are preparing to meet for negotiations on how to avoid a new run-up to nuclear weapons. If, to the already present difficulties among the major nuclear powers to find a solution to the non-proliferation of atomic weapons, we add the growing Chinese activism, we can understand how the future situation is potentially very dangerous. In the presence of a third actor that increases its arsenal beyond any rule, both the US and Russia could feel free of constraints and develop new weapons. The Chinese tactic is now predictable, the accusations against the US are now a boring repetition: that of seeing an imaginary enemy to divert attention from its internal problems. China says it is open to bilateral talks on the issue of strategic security on condition that they are held on an equal footing and this appears impossible given the great imbalance of the nuclear arsenals in Washington’s favor. If the US sees a real potential danger, the individual Chinese reasons, observed by a neutral observer, appear justified by the desire to recover at least part of the lost ground on nuclear weapons; reversing the view it is legitimate to ask how the United States, but also Russia (always ahead of China), would respond to a request from Beijing to reduce its arsenal. The question is that we have come out of a logic of general reduction of nuclear warheads, because these weapons, in this historical moment, represent again, as during the Cold War, a psychological deterrent for a balance, but of much more difficult management in a world no longer bipolar but multipolar, even if characterized by two main powers, in any case surrounded by regional powers of great strategic importance. The real challenge would be to include China in global talks on the issue of disarmament, but not as a supporting actor, but with the right dignity of a great power that Beijing desires at the political level; this certainly will not solve the problem of proliferation but could allow the start of a dialogue on this issue, also with the aim of improving the respective relations. Seen from the Western point of view, Chinese nuclear proliferation cannot fail to be a highly worrying factor, given that it is still a country governed by a dictatorship and which through the soft power exercised in other areas of the world has shown a willingness to export its own political model; certainly this cannot work with the West and the suspicion that behind the increase of its military arsenal there is the intention to exert pressure is almost a certainty. But for this very reason it is important to avoid any possible drift and further worsening of relations: otherwise the risk of tense situations will be more and more likely.