China Now Understands What a Nuclear Rivalry Looks Like

The prospect of nuclear war doesn’t get much attention these days outside of think tanks, intelligence agencies, and generals’ quarters. The world’s Cold War nuclear nightmare faded with the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago. The notion that anyone might use them in a contest of mutual destruction seems like a relic of the Cuban missile crisis—a dark memory from a bygone era.

But the danger remains, not only because of the over Ukraine’s fate. China, an old but relatively minor player in the nuclear game, appears to be significantly increasing the size of its arsenal. The U.S. Department of Defense, in its latest of China’s military capabilities, forecasts that by 2030, the Chinese will have roughly tripled their current stock of nuclear warheads, to 1,000. Perhaps no other single statistic shows with such stark clarity how drastically and fundamentally the relationship between the U.S. and China is deteriorating and how much that trend could endanger American national security and global peace. For its entire nuclear history—dating back to the 1960s—China has been content with a relatively modest arsenal. that China has 350 nuclear warheads, a pittance compared with Russia’s 6,257 and America’s 5,600. The uncharacteristic buildup shows that China’s strategic policy is changing.