US triggers China’s urgency to strengthen nuclear deterrent: Global Times editorial

On Monday, The New York Times quoted nuclear weapons experts from the Federation of American Scientists as saying that China has built a new silo for launching nuclear missiles in the Hami prefecture of Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. China now owns 110 silos, according to the US media. On June 30, the Washington Post published the findings of researchers from US think tank James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies, who identified around 120 new silos near the city of Yumen, Northwest China’s Gansu Province. The results of both reports are based on pictures taken by commercial satellites.

There has been no official Chinese response to these US reports. Some people in China have suggested that those silos claimed by the US might be foundations of wind power plants, though this claim has also not been confirmed by official sources.

There are two major reasons why some people in the US, and in the West in general, have been talking more and more about China’s nuclear weapons. First, the US has made China its main strategic rivalry. As it has adopted various policies to lay siege to China, the risk of strategic confrontation between the two countries has increased. As the US is strengthening its own nuclear weapons arsenal, it naturally assumes that China will do the same. Second, China’s economic and technological strength is sufficient beyond doubt to support the expansion of its nuclear weapons arsenal. It would be easy for China to do so if it wanted to.

By Global TimesPublished: Jul 27, 2021 11:28 PM