China is providing the equivalent
scaremongering of the Soviet “missile
gap” in order to sustain America’s
militarist-dependent capitalist economy.
July31, 2021 -
Media reports from the U.S. this week –
regurgitated by the European press – highlighted
concerns that China is embarking on a massive
scale-up of underground silos for launching
nuclear weapons.
Hundreds of silos are alleged to be under
construction in the western regions of Xinjiang
and Gansu, according to U.S. media reports
citing commercial satellite data. American
military officials and State Department
diplomats are quoted as saying they are “deeply
concerned” by the purported expansion of China’s
nuclear arsenal.
For its part, Beijing has not yet commented
on the claims of new nuclear silos. Some Chinese
media reports say that the excavation could be
due to something else entirely – the
construction of large-scale wind farms. A Global
Times
dismissed the U.S. claims as “hyped”.
Context, as ever, is crucial. For a start,
the U.S. headlines are equivocal and heavily
qualified, indicating that the information is
far from conclusive.
The Wall Street Journal reported: “China
Appears to Be Building New Silos for Nuclear
Missiles, Researchers Say”.
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While CNN headlined: “China appears to be
expanding its nuclear capabilities, U.S.
researchers say in new report”.
Despite the lack of definite information that
didn’t stop Pentagon and government officials
from saying they were “deeply concerned”, thus
adding a veneer of factuality to reports that
were speculative.
Here’s another consideration. So what if
China is expanding its nuclear arsenal with new
silos? The People’s Republic of China has a
stockpile of warheads numbering 350. The United
States has a stockpile of some 5,550 warheads,
according to the Stockholm International
Peace Research Institute.
The U.S. has a nuclear offensive power 15
times greater than China. So even if China is
planning to double its arsenal of nuclear
weapons, according to the Pentagon, that
increase is still a fraction of American
destructive capability.
Beijing maintains that the onus is on
Washington to de-escalate its nuclear arsenal.
The United States and Russia have resumed talks
this week in Geneva on renewing arms-control
efforts – efforts that have been put on hold by
Washington since the Trump administration.
Washington and Moscow – both possessing over 90
percent of the world’s total nuclear warheads –
need to get on with their obligations for
disarmament before China is reasonably brought
into the discussion, along with other minor
nuclear powers, such as Britain and France.
Another consideration for context is the
ramping up of hostility by the United States
towards China. The Biden administration is
continuing the aggressive agenda of its Trump
and Obama predecessors. Arming the renegade
Chinese island territory of Taiwan, sailing
warships into the South China Sea, media
vilification of China over allegations of human
rights abuses, genocide, malign conduct in
trade, cyberattacks, and the Covid-19 pandemic.
All of this speaks of stoking confrontation with
China and inflaming U.S. public opinion to
accept war with China.
Pentagon officials
tell Congressional hearings that they
consider war with China a distinct possibility
in the near term.
Given this context, it would be reasonable to
expect China to expand its nuclear defenses in
order to shift the American calculation away
from contemplating a war. The problem is not the
alleged Chinese military buildup. It is
Washington’s criminal policy of hostility
towards Beijing that is fueling the risk of war.
But here is another key factor: the United
States is undergoing a trillion-dollar
upgrade of its nuclear arsenal. That began
under Obama and was continued under Trump and
now Biden. That puts alleged Chinese expansion
into perspective. The United States has already
nuclear power that dwarfs China’s and yet the
U.S. is expanding what is a provocative threat
to China.
Furthermore, Washington’s nuclear upgrade of
its triad of submarines, silo-based
intercontinental ballistic missiles and
strategic bombers is hurtling out of control
financially.
A recent
report by the non-partisan Congressional
Budget Office warned that the trillion-dollar
nuclear upgrade was ballooning with
“stupefyingly expensive” cost overruns. In just
two years, the cost was over-budget by $140
billion and the upgrade program is to run for a
total of three decades.
This eye-watering waste of taxpayers’ money
has led some U.S. lawmakers to call for drastic
cuts in nuclear arms expenditure. Senator Ed
Markey and others have decried “our bloated
nuclear weapons budget”. Given the crumbling
state of America’s civilian infrastructure,
popular opposition to exorbitant military
spending is potentially a major political
problem for the Pentagon and its industrial
complex.
The U.S. media hype over the alleged
expansion of Chinese silos begins to look like
déjà vu of the alleged “missile gap” with the
Soviet Union during the Cold War. In the 1950s
and 60s, Washington and the compliant corporate
media became animated by CIA data that purported
to show the Soviet Union outpacing the U.S. in
the numbers of nuclear missiles. It turned out
that the “missile gap” was non-existent. But the
fear-mongering it engendered, in turn, created
public acceptance of massive military
expenditure by Washington that has become
structural and chronic to this day. The warped
allocation of financial resources is a
parasitical drain on American society. Any
rational, democratic mind would abhor the
grotesque priorities.
China today is providing the equivalent
scaremongering of the Soviet “missile gap” in
order to sustain America’s militarist-dependent
capitalist economy.