US prepares for nuclear standoff with Russia and China – WSJ
US President Donald Trump (photo: Getty Images)
The world is already in a new nuclear arms race in which the United States will have to confront two equal rivals — China and Russia — simultaneously, writes The Wall Street Journal.
China is rapidly catching up with the United States, and Russia is developing new weapons
Beijing, which had a relatively small nuclear arsenal until recently, is rapidly increasing its capabilities and may reach parity with the United States by the mid-2030s. Meanwhile, Russia is developing a new generation of nuclear systems designed to strike American cities.
Unlike Moscow and Washington, which are still bound by certain limitations under the New START Treaty (set to expire in February), China does not participate in arms control frameworks and is actively expanding its arsenal.
According to US experts, the United States currently possesses 5,117 nuclear warheads (3,700 of which are retired), Russia has 5,459, and China has about 600. North Korea is also actively joining the nuclear club, already possessing approximately 50 warheads and developing missiles and submarines capable of striking the United States.
The US is responding too late to new challenges
The American nuclear modernization program was based on the assumption that threats from Russia, China, and North Korea would not significantly increase. These expectations have now proven to be incorrect.
"We're entering the third nuclear age that is going to look a lot more like Cold War than the 1990s and the 2000s," said former Pentagon official Matthew Kroenig.
China, meanwhile, is not ready for arms control negotiations; it aims first to catch up with the United States and Russia. Some Chinese military experts openly state that Beijing's goal is to possess enough nuclear weapons so that the United States would never dare to use them against China.
Russia escalates nuclear blackmail
Amid the war against Ukraine, the Kremlin regularly resorts to nuclear threats in an attempt to limit Western support for Kyiv.
However, experts emphasize that many of Russia's so-called wonder-weapons, including the Burevestnik missile and the Poseidon systems, are not ready for real deployment and primarily serve as tools of intimidation.
"For the Russians, a lot of the motivation is just the fear factor, getting us to talk about this scary missile. It is eating up their research-and-development budget. It's a Russian waste of money, in essence. The Chinese have a much smarter approach: They're just building warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles, and aren't trying to build anything weird and exotic," explained Fabian Hoffmann from the University of Oslo.
Nuclear testing
In October, US President Donald Trump instructed the Pentagon to begin nuclear testing "due to testing programs conducted by other countries."
During the night of November 15, he said the tests would take place "pretty soon." When asked to clarify whether the testing would involve the detonation of a nuclear warhead, Trump did not respond.
Meanwhile, according to CNN, officials in the Trump administration responsible for energy and nuclear security are planning to meet with White House representatives in the coming days. They want to persuade the president to abandon nuclear testing.
