Read more at The Wall Street Journal
America’s diplomatic differences with China on trade, Taiwan, the South China Sea and much else are familiar. But a new issue may be moving to center stage: Beijing’s historic buildup of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The Friday readout from Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meeting with leaders of Southeast Asian countries listed some of the long-running U.S. objections to Chinese behavior, then added a new one: “The Secretary also noted deep concern with the rapid growth of the PRC’s nuclear arsenal,” according to a State Department press release. The buildup “highlights how Beijing has sharply deviated from its decades-old nuclear strategy based on minimum deterrence.”
It’s about time this got public attention from a foreign-policy principal. In recent weeks commercial satellite images have made public the existence of what is believed to be China’s vast new array of missile silos in the Gansu and Xinjiang deserts. U.S. military officials have been flagging the Chinese buildup for some time.