Hundreds of silos are under construction to house nuclear-armed ballistic missiles
he US and its allies are running out of time to match China’s unstoppable war machine, President Biden’s top commander in the Indo-Pacific has warned.
In a frank assessment of the emerging threat from Beijing, Admiral John Aquilino outlined China’s rapidly growing navy, the spread of hundreds of silos under construction to house nuclear-armed ballistic missiles, and the doubling in production of fifth-generation stealth fighters.
Aquilino, who is the commander of US Indo-Pacific Command (Indopacom), said President Xi was overseeing the “largest, fastest, most comprehensive military build-up” since the Second World War in both the “conventional and strategic nuclear domains”.
“Conflict in the Indopacom area of operations is neither imminent nor inevitable. Nevertheless, we do not have the luxury of time, we must act now to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific,” he told the House of Representatives armed services committee this week.
The strategic partnership between President Xi and President Putin now has “no limits”, Aquilino said, leading to the Russian transfer of highly enriched uranium to Beijing for developing weapons-grade plutonium. Their partnership was underscored this week when a Russian Tu-22M3 bomber was seen flying over the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan, as part of a surprise inspection of Kremlin’s combat readiness of its pacific fleet.
It came as tensions between the superpowers increased over China’s expected invasion of Taiwan, the self-ruled island that President Xi has said will be brought back under the control of Beijing.
Washington plans to send 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Taiwan, which drew condemnation. “The military liaison between the US and Taiwan and the arms sales by the US to Taiwan seriously violate the one-China policy and the three Sino-US joint communiques,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said.
Under the one-China policy, the US recognises the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole legal government of China but only “acknowledges” the Chinese position that Taiwan is part of the country.
However, Washington maintains unofficial relations with the Taipei government and supplies the island state with arms to defend itself. President Biden has on at least three occasions pledged that the US would come to Taiwan’s aid in the event of an invasion. Wang said the sale of Harpoons “severely harms China’s sovereignty and security interests and seriously threatens the peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait”.
Should Washington continue on the “wrong road of US-Taiwan collusion”, Wang warned that China would “certainly take resolute and forceful measures to firmly defend its sovereignty and security interests”.
The Global Times, a party-run newspaper, said the missiles represented another “step of the so-called porcupine strategy to equip the island and attempt to deter the Chinese forces, because the missiles could target China’s amphibious landing fleet”. It said: “Resisting reunification by force is playing with fire.”
China’s armed forces could soon surpass the US military, a top commander has warned
Underlining the threat posed to Taiwan , Aquilino said: “Beijing publicly claims a preference for peaceful unification over conflict. However, its consistent pressure tactics and coercive behaviour demonstrates a significant disconnect between their words and their deeds.”
Looking at the wider threat for the whole Indo-Pacific region, Aquilino said “the most stunning of all” the developments was the way the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) rocket force had continued “to massively expand its arsenal of conventional and nuclear missiles”.
“This almost certainly includes a large number of hypersonic missiles, some of which may be nuclear-capable,” Aquilino said. “Construction of silo fields across northern China, coupled with modern ballistic-missile submarines and the Xian H-6N nuclear-capable, air-to-air refuelling bomber, underscore China’s focus on developing a survivable nuclear triad.”
He said the authorities in Beijing were being opaque about “the scale of its nuclear force expansion”, adding that current estimates suggested that before the end of the decade the Chinese military would “likely possess at least 1,000 deliverable nuclear warheads”.
“This larger arsenal could provide the PRC with new options before and during a crisis or conflict to leverage nuclear weapons for coercive purposes, including military provocations against US allies and partners in the region,” he said, hinting at a likely strategy in the event of the US trying to defend Taiwan from invasion.
Referring to China’s growing navy, he said Beijing had added 17 warships to its navy last year, including four guided-missile cruisers, three destroyers, five frigates, two attack submarines and a large amphibious assault ship. He predicted that the People’s Liberation Army Navy (Plan), currently with 350 “battle force ships”, would increase in size to 440 by 2030.
Battle force ships are defined as aircraft carriers, submarines, surface combatants, amphibious warfare ships, combat logistics vessels and some support ships. By comparison, under current US Navy shipbuilding plans, the number of battle force ships would increase from 292 today to a maximum of 367 by 2052.
The US still has far more carriers than China — 11 compared with China’s two in service and one new-generation carrier launched last year — but Beijing could have five by 2030. Beijing has pinpointed 2027 as the target for the PLA to deliver capabilities “needed to counter the US military in the Indo-Pacific and project power across the globe”.
As part of the drive to meet this time frame, the PLA had doubled production of the fifth-generation J-20 “Mighty Dragon” stealth fighter, with an estimated 150 now operational. Aquilino also revealed that China was developing a jet-powered supersonic unmanned aircraft system (UAS or drone).
China also carried out 64 successful space launches last year which placed more than 160 satellites into orbit, expanding intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. This is compared with 55 space launches in 2021, Aquilino said.
Source: The Times
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