The US believes that China has been adding to its nuke arsenal and fleet of nuclear-powered submarines
Concerned over China’s growing nuclear prowess, the United States could look toward initiating arms control talks with the East Asian communist nation soon. The US believes that China has been adding to its nuclear arsenal and fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, and wants to intervene so as to bring about a control over such arms build-up.
It was only last month that the US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met online to explore the chances of arms control parleys between the two. The two leaders had reportedly agreed on the urgency of such a dialogue, then.
China could double nuclear missile arsenal
In the meantime, the US administration has been watching the situation and believes that China might be on road to double its nuclear missile arsenal in the next few years.
This, it needs to be noted, is at a time when the super powers United States and Russia have already reduced their nuke stockpiles to much lower levels.
The US is optimistic that a dialogue with China on arms control might be a near-term possibility. However, nothing has been revealed in terms of a timeline of the proposed talks.
China not keen on trilateral arms control
It is being reported that China is expanding its nuclear arsenal, and the communist nation could possibly double the arms stockpile in the next few years. With the situation alarming, the US administration had called upon China to be part of the new arms control treaty, which also has the Russian Federation as a participant. Though China was not averse to the US-Russian dialogue, the East Asian nation had categorically revealed that it wasn’t very keen on trilateral arms control and disarmament.
The reason put forward by China is that when it’s nuclear arsenal is compared with that of the US, China has so less. China’s stance is that, a dialogue on this matter would be fine with it only after the US brings its nuclear stock to the same level as what it has at the moment. China has also stressed that whatever nuclear prowess it has is solely with the intention of ensuring self-defence.
It now remains to be seen as to how China would decide on the proposed arms control parleys with the US. Going by what is being reported, the scenario could be a but tough as China has made its stance clear and is looking for a clarity on why it should reduce nuke power.