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US blinded by the nuclear haze of own huge arsenal, sees only China's nukes

Friday, 06 August 2021 8:32 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 06 August 2021 8:43 PM ]

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken leaves after speaking about refugee programs for Afghans who aided the United States during a briefing at the State Department in Washington, DC, August 2, 2021. (Reuters photo)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has expressed deep concern about China's growing nuclear arsenal during a meeting with foreign ministers of Asian countries, despite the fact that Washington has thousands of nuclear weapons to Beijing's few hundred, and that the United States is the only country to have actually used atomic weapons on two cities in Asia.

Blinken on Friday was addressing a virtual meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which groups more than two dozen countries, Reuters reported.

The US State Department said in a statement that Blinken called on China to cease "provocative" behavior in the South China Sea and "raised serious concerns about ongoing human rights abuses in Tibet, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang.”

"The Secretary also noted deep concern with the rapid growth of the PRC’s nuclear arsenal which highlights how Beijing has sharply deviated from its decades-old nuclear strategy based on minimum deterrence," the department added, using the acronym for China's official name, the People's Republic of China.

Chinese media rebuff new US concerns over nuclear weapons

The Pentagon and Republican congressmen have voiced fresh concerns about China’s buildup of its nuclear forces.

Both the Pentagon and State Department have expressed concerns recently about China's what they call buildup of its nuclear forces and claimed that China appears to be building hundreds of new silos for nuclear missiles.

Last month, the State Department called on Beijing to engage with it "on practical measures to reduce the risks of destabilizing arms races."

A 2020 Pentagon report to the US Congress estimated China's nuclear warhead stockpile was in "the low 200s".

The Pentagon's report assessing China's military capabilities suggested that China would double its warhead stockpile in the next decade. Also, three Republican senators claimed in June that China would have 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2029, achieving some kind of "nuclear parity with the US."

The United States is estimated to have around 3,800 warheads, and according to a State Department factsheet, 1,357 of those were deployed as of March 1.

US to spend $500bn on nuclear weapons upgrade over next 10 years

US plans to spend $500 billion on its nuclear weapons upgrade over next decade.

The United States has produced more than 70,000 nuclear warheads since 1945, more than all other nuclear-weapon states combined. The US government spent at least US$9.61 trillion in present-day terms on nuclear weapons, according to experts.

The United States was the first country to manufacture nuclear weapons and is the only country to have used them -- on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. The two bombings killed up to 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians.

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