USA creates strategic risks accusing Russia, China, DPRK of nuclear coordination

The US is reportedly preparing for a coordinated nuclear strike from China, Russia and North Korea. In reality, the US is prepared to launch a preemptive nuclear strike.

Photo: Pixabay by STRIEWA, PDM

Washington believes that Russia, China and North Korea could launch a coordinated nuclear strike against the US. 

The New York Times reported that the US changed the goals of its nuclear strategy. According to the newspaper, in a secret plan approved by the Biden administration in March, the updated strategy instructed US forces to prepare for a potential coordinated nuclear challenge from China, Russia and North Korea.

Notably, US Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, who serves as Pentagon's Director of Defense Intelligence Agency, told the US Senate Armed Services Committee in May that even if the armies of Russia and China "were interoperable, they would certainly be cooperative," prompting the military to rethink strategies.

The new plan, according to NYT, also reflects US concerns about the rapid expansion of China's nuclear arsenal, which is projected to rival those of the US and Russia in the upcoming decade. More details are expected to be provided in a memo to Congress before Biden leaves office.

China's nuclear capabilities growing

In June, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported that China had increased its nuclear arsenal by 90 warheads, bringing the total to 500 as of January.

US intelligence estimates suggest it could grow from 500 to 1,000 warheads by 2030. Russia currently has about 4,000 warheads and remains the main factor influencing US nuclear strategy with about the same number of warheads.

The SIPRI report also predicts that China's total number of intercontinental ballistic missiles, currently counting about 238, could surpass those of the United States (800) or Russia (1,244) over the next decade.

China urges US not to escalate 'Chinese nuclear threat'

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in response to NYT's revelations that the US was "the architect of the world's largest nuclear threat and strategic risks." She called on Washington to faithfully shoulder its "priority responsibility for nuclear disarmament and reduce its nuclear arsenal significantly and substantially."

The United States has been advertising the so-called "China nuclear threat theory" during the recent years to find excuses to shirk its nuclear disarmament commitments and expand its nuclear program, Mao Ning added. She reiterated that China has a no-first-use policy and a nuclear self-defense strategy.

The United States and China resumed informal nuclear talks in March for the first time in five years. However, discussions were suspended in July in response to US arms sales to Taiwan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian then said that USA's arms sales to Taiwan had "seriously compromised the political atmosphere for continued arms control consultations."

In recent years, the US has been vigorously modernizing its nuclear forces:

• nuclear warheads,
• low-yield nuclear weapons,
• hypersonic weapons,
• the B61 nuclear bomb.

The US is also working to improve tactical forward-deployed nuclear weapons to subsequently deploy them in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

According to foreign media reports, the US Army may begin deploying ground-based intermediate-range missiles in Guam in 2024, as well as in Germany. The Biden administration increased the budget for the nuclear military sector to $37.7 billion in its defense budget request for the 2024 fiscal year, which marked an increase by 9.6 percent from last year.

• The US provides missile engineering assistance to South Korea. Moreover, Washington encourages both South Korea and Japan to discuss the joint use of nuclear weapons in cooperation with the US.
• The US transferred nuclear submarine power reactors and weapons-grade highly enriched uranium to Australia, a non-nuclear country, opening a "Pandora's box" of nuclear proliferation.
• The US has repeatedly violated and withdrawn from arms control treaties such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). Washington has stopped cooperating with Russia under the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
• The US has encouraged Ukraine's nuclear aspirations as well.

It is only the United States that has the preemptive nuclear strike scenario enshrined in its nuclear doctrine. Moreover, it is only the US that has experience using it in practice.

USA's various actions have caused serious damage to the international arms control system, and the international community has reason to seriously think about it.

Details

In nuclear strategy a first strike or preemptive strike is a preemptive surprise attack employing overwhelming force. First strike capability is a country's ability to defeat another nuclear power by destroying its arsenal to the point where the attacking country can survive the weakened retaliation while the opposing side is left unable to continue war. The preferred methodology is to attack the opponent's strategic nuclear weapon facilities (missile silos, submarine bases, bomber airfields), command and control sites, and storage depots first. The strategy is called counterforce.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) was an arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union (and its successor state, the Russian Federation). US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed the treaty on 8 December 1987. The US Senate approved the treaty on 27 May 1988, and Reagan and Gorbachev ratified it on 1 June 1988.

New START is a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation with the formal name of Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. It was signed on 8 April 2010 in Prague, and after ratification it entered into force on 5 February 2011.