Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
China is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal and may have 1,000 nuclear warheads by the end of the decade as it aims to surpass U.S. global influence by the middle of the 21st century, according to a major Pentagon report released on Wednesday.
The estimate, based on the rapid modernization of China's nuclear strike options and its construction of missile silos, marks a dramatic increase from the projection in last year's China Military Power report, which estimated that China would double their stockpile of 200 warheads within a decade.
The report comes amid heightened tensions over the issue of Taiwan and was published hours after the most senior U.S. general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley issued a stark warning about China's military progress stating it amounts to "one of the largest shifts in global geostrategic power that the world has witnessed."
A senior defence official briefing reporters on the report adopted a similar stance.
"The nuclear expansion that the [People's Republic of China] is undertaking is certainly very concerning to us," the official said. "It's one thing to observe what they're doing, but they haven't really explained why they're doing it."
The official said the buildup raises serious doubts about the intent behind their nuclear stockpile.
"They're moving in a direction that substantially exceeds where they've been before in terms of numbers and capabilities," the official said. Though China still maintains a no first-use policy when it comes to nuclear weapons, the official said China has suggested "there are circumstances under which that wouldn't apply."
China has also focused on a "lean and effective nuclear force," but their current buildup is greater than the US anticipated "and well beyond where they've been historically." The investment in its nuclear force has allowed China to establish a "nascent" nuclear triad of air-launched ballistic missiles, as well as surface and sea-launched missiles, similar to the United States' own triad.
The U.S. currently has 3,750 nuclear warheads in its stockpile, according to the latest data from the State Department, dwarfing the size of China's nuclear stockpile.
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) published a report this week about the rapid building of three suspected silo fields in western China. The silo fields are still years away from becoming operational, wrote the authors of the FAS report, Matt Korda and Hans M. Kristensen, but they could eventually be capable of launching long-range nuclear missiles.
The Pentagon report, officially called Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2021, also focuses on Beijing's goals for future development and modernization of its armed forces. Crucially, if China meets its interim modernization goal for 2027, it could provide Beijing with "a range of different options" regarding Taiwan, from a blockade of the island to a potential amphibious invasion of either Taiwan itself or one of the smaller outlying islands.
At the same time, China also aims to deter foreign intervention in what Beijing sees as a domestic political issue.
"Obviously, they're looking at the United States or other parties they think might intervene on Taiwan's behalf," the official said. Beyond 2027, China is looking to complete modernization of its military by 2035 and become a world class military by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC). That would allow it to "displace U.S. alliances and security partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region," the report said.
The report, which summarizes Chinese military developments during 2020, does not describe China's recent hypersonic missile test over the summer. On Wednesday at the Aspen Security Forum, where he was interviewed by NBC's Lester Holt, Milley said hypersonic technology is just one area where China is making significant advances.
Asked about the recent test of a hypersonic weapon, Milley said it was just one part of the broader picture with regard to China's rapidly advancing military capability, which he characterized as a "fundamental change" in warfare that is already reshaping elements of international order.
The report does note that China fielded the DF-17 last year, a medium-range ballistic missile capable of launching a hypersonic glide vehicle.
China has denied it has tested hypersonic weapons.
Last week, the second most senior US general said that the pace at which China's military is developing capabilities is "stunning" while US development suffers from "brutal" bureaucracy. The outgoing Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Hyten, told reporters at a Defense Writers Group roundtable that "the pace they're moving and the trajectory they're on will surpass Russia and the United States if we don't do something to change it. It will happen. So I think we have to do something."
The Pentagon has repeatedly referred to China as the "pacing challenge" for the US, but President Joe Biden stressed Tuesday that competition does not make conflict inevitable.
At the closing press conference of the COP26 climate summit, Biden said, "There's no reason there need to be conflict." Of his upcoming virtual summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Biden said, "I've also indicated to him, so I'm not reluctant to say it publicly, that we expect him to play by the rules of the road."
This year's report adds a new section on China's chemical and biological research, raising concerns about the possible dual-use applications of the country's biological activities. But it does not dive into the origins or spread of coronavirus. Instead, it notes that the Covid-19 pandemic was a driving force behind the China's foreign policy, as it sought to deflect any blame for the outbreak while using foreign assistance to build regional influence.
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.