Comments on: New Report: Chinese Nuclear Forces and U.S. Nuclear War Planning

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:21:12 +0000

[Edited] China will be a threat to the US if it comes comes under attack by the Americans. It is the American with their thousands of nuclear weapons poised to hit China. The Chinese will only hit back if attacked. In other words they won’t be the aggressor. The US wants China to be like Iraq where the US carriers could launch their Tomahawk missiles with no fear of counter attack. Well China is different because for the first time in US history a nation under attack by US forces can devastate the US homeland which must not be allowed to happen.

The pentagon has painted China as a threat to US credibility if the PLA takes over Taiwan and the US doesn’t intervene. What about Chinese credibility if Taiwan declares independence and China takes no action.

The Chinese are going to get stronger whether the US likes it or not. If the US wants to perpetuate its overwhelming power over China a war now will achieve its aim but it it ain’t going to be a walkover. As for the Taiwanese a noted local scientist has said no amount of US weapons/power can buy peace in the Taiwan area. Of course it can be done if the US stationed nuclear weapons on Taiwan but that is a no go because a nuclear strike from Taiwan on China will invite a swift counter strike which will make the island sink into the Pacific ocean.

Reply: Just a couple of reactions: The point that “for the first time in US history a nation under attack by US forces can devastate the US homeland,” don’t forget that other country formerly known as the Soviet Union, which for many decades had the capability to do just that. Even today, most US nuclear weapons are in fact poised at Russia, not China. The US used to deploy nuclear weapons in Taiwan between 1958 and 1974, but not even hawks propose doing that again. HK

By: loupgarous

loupgarous — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:18:56 +0000

From the text above: “After a hiatus in the 1980s precipitated by a joint U.S.-Chinese stand against the Soviet Union, U.S. nuclear targeting of China has increased after the end of the Cold War. The U.S. navy now bases the majority of its ballistic missile submarines in the Pacific, modernizing their nuclear missiles, and forward-deploying strategic bombers to Guam.”

Looks as though there has been some cherry-picking of the facts on the part of the authors to support the book’s thesis. The obvious alternative explanation for increased deployment in the Pacific of US nuclear assets that the US Navy is holding North Korean targets at risk to deter nuclear and other military adventurism on their part was not discussed at all; in any serious discussion of regional nuclear war planning, it should have been.

Reply: We actually do point out several places in the report that China is not the only target, but the increased focus on China is evident from a wide range of sources (see pages 160-169). HK

By: Gabriel Domínguez

Gabriel Domínguez — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:14:31 +0000

You say:
The simulations are striking because they show that regardless of whether the strike is an imprecise Chinese “countervalue” attack on cities, or a highly accurate U.S. “countervalue” attack on military facilities, the result would be tens of millions of innocent civilian casualties."
Does this sentence is correct? Should not say "...or a highly accurate U.S. “counterforce” attack on military facilities..."
Reply: You're absolutely right. I have corrected the typo. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. HK