U.S. intelligence is looking at a plethora of new Chinese threats, including an increase in nuclear launchers, more threats against Taiwan, space missiles and boosting its weapons of mass destruction capabilities.
The assessment comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing, which escalated following the spy balloon China sent over the United States and reports that Xi Jinping is considering lethal aid to Russia for his war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s budget proposal includes an unprecedented increase in peacetime funding for the Pentagon – $835 billion, up from $816 billion in the current budget.
The extra money is due to escalating tensions with China, which the Pentagon sees as a challenger to US military leadership.
US intelligence is looking at a plethora of new threats from China
The budget includes significant funding for Air Force and Navy long-range munitions that could be used in a potential future conflict with China, an official told Bloomberg News.
The Pentagon has warned Congress that China now has more land-based missile launchers with intercontinental range than the United States
“The number of fixed and land-mobile ICBM launchers in China exceeds the number of ICBM launchers in the United States,” the commander of US Strategic Command, which oversees nuclear forces, wrote to the Senate Armed Services Committees. and of the House on January 17. 26.
Beijing is also considering space-based weapons, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which released its annual threat assessment on Wednesday.
“China has also conducted orbital technology demonstrations which, while not anti-space weapon tests, prove China’s ability to harness future space-based anti-space weapons,” he said. he noted.
The Biden administration is considering how to respond. The United States has a larger nuclear arsenal than Beijing because it also closely monitors Russian nuclear forces.
But the president’s budget request includes $170 billion for arms purchases and $145 billion for research and development, much of it going to new fighter jets, as officials remain wary of China’s muscle flexing in the Indo-Pacific region.
Taiwan is another point of tension between the two superpowers.
China has warned Taiwan that it will take even more aggressive ‘countermeasures’ than last summer’s large-scale military exercises if President Tsai Ing-wen meets House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California next month .
McCarthy confirmed the meeting will take place when Tsai is at the Ronald Reagan Library to deliver a speech in April.
“I will, when she’s in America,” he said. “But it has nothing to do with my trip and whether I would go to Taiwan or not, and China can’t tell me where or when to go.”
But its actions “will inevitably cause new tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and China’s countermeasures could be even more decisive than those seen during [former US House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi’s final visit to the island,” Chinese state media reported on Wednesday.
China held large-scale military drills last August when Pelosi visited Taiwan and met with Tsai, including firing missiles at the island in a show of force, sending warships across the center line of the Taiwan Strait and simulating a blockade of Taiwan with military exercises lasting several days nearby. the Island.
Over the past few weeks, China has shown its might in Taiwan – sending 25 fighter jets and three warships to the island.
Biden, in response, approved the sale of hundreds of missiles for F-16 fighter jets to the island.
Taiwan has upgraded its fleet of 141 F-16 fighter jets and ordered another 66 aircraft from the United States
China studying space-based missile technology, Office of National Intelligence warns
“The number of fixed and land-mobile ICBM launchers in China exceeds the number of ICBM launchers in the United States” – Congress has been warned (above a missile silo under construction in the north-central from China)
China is also increasing its weapons of mass destruction capabilities
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its annual threat assessment for 2023 on Wednesday.
He warned that China could build on its actions from 2022 and include more crossings of the Taiwan Strait median line or missile overflights of Taiwan.
“In 2023, Beijing will continue to pressure and possibly offer incentives to Taiwan to move towards unification and respond to what it sees as increased engagement between the United States and Taiwan. “, says the evaluation.
“Beijing claims the United States is using Taiwan as a ‘pawn’ to undermine China’s rise and will continue to take stronger action to push back on perceived increases in support for Taiwan.” Beijing could build on its actions from 2022, which could include more crossings of the median line of the Taiwan Strait or missile overflights of Taiwan.
The United States, like many other countries, does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but is required by US law to provide it with the means to defend itself.
Washington has long used a policy of “strategic ambiguity,” meaning it does not specify whether it would respond militarily to an attack on Taiwan.
