WORLD AT WAR: 12.16.22 - China's Nuclear Buildup Could Overtake America

Pentagon Report - China's Nuclear Buildup Could Overtake America – Patty-Jane Geller - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5778 The Pentagon's new China Military Power Report provides troubling insights on the extent of the growth of the communist regime's nuclear arsenal. It describes a nation benton multiplying its nuclear forces. First and foremost, the 2022 report reveals that China could field 1,500 nuclear weapons by 2035. This effectively would equal the nuclear arsenal of the United States, whichdeploys around 1,550 nuclear weapons (as limited by the New START treaty with Russia). Last year's report estimated that China would have 1,000 warheads fielded by 2030, but this new assessment indicates China's intent to achieve nuclear parity with, or surpass,the U.S. Second, the new report states that China's nuclear buildup--which already had been described by the commander of U.S. Strategic Command as a "strategic breakout"--has accelerated. It's worth recalling that in 2020, the Pentagon estimated that China would double its stockpile of about 200 nuclear weapons over the decade. The 2022 report now states thatChina has already done so--in just two years. Indeed, this acceleration matches the prediction from Adm. Charles Richard, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, that "whatever the time estimate that the intelligence communitygives you on anything from China, divide it by two and maybe by four and you will get closer to the right answer." These updated estimates also remind Americans that we don't know when China will stop this nuclear expansion, and that it would be unwise to assume the regime will stop at1,000 warheads by 2030 or even 1,500 by 2035. Given China's ambitions to become a top military power and supplant the U.S. on the world stage, what's to stop it from soaring past parity with the U.S. and trying to achieve nuclear superiority? Yet the United States currently doesn't have the nuclear forces designed to deter a Chinese nuclear threat of this size. The size and composition of the U.S. nuclear deterrentwas designed around 2010, based on assumptions of a more benign threat environment than the one we see today. At that time--when decisions about the future U.S. nuclear force were made--China was expected to maintain its historic "minimum deterrence" strategy. No one predicted therapid nuclear expansion we're seeing today. As nuclear threats continue to grow, so does the concern that U.S. nuclear forces may not be sufficient to meet the demands of the new and dynamic threat environment. Third, the Pentagon report notes China's deliberate effort to expand warhead production. In particular, it highlights Beijing's increasing capacity to produce plutonium, thenuclear material required for a nuclear weapon. Access to plutonium has been regarded by some analysts as a limiting factor for China's nuclear program. But the Pentagon report indicates that China is determined to remedythis. Although the report doesn't describe China's warhead production in detail, it estimates a deployed force of 1,000 warheads by 2030 growing to 1,500 fielded warheads by 2035; this could suggest a rough production capacity of around 100 warheads per yearin the 2030s. This would be significant. By comparison, the U.S. lacks the ability to produce nuclear warheads because it doesn't have the capacity to produce plutonium pits, which compose the core of any nuclearweapon. The U.S. currently is working to reconstitute its ability to produce plutonium pits, with the goal of producing 80 pits per year. But this capability isn't expected to befully operational until 2032 at the earliest. In short, the Pentagon report suggests that China still will possess a larger warhead production capacity even if the U.S. fully achieves its own production goals. What's more, the goal of producing 80 pits a year is based on the need to replace existing weapons before they age out. The U.S. does have a substantial number of warheadsin reserve, but those would require new plutonium pits as well. In other words, U.S. plutonium pit production only will enable the U.S. to replace its existing forces while China's weapons production will increase its arsenal dramatically. A Chinese advantage in capacity to produce warheads provides President Xi Jinping a path to nuclear superiority, should he choose to pursue it. The U.S., for its part, wouldhave few options to respond if China decided to continue building beyond 1,500 warheads. ----------------------------------------- 5 Global Flashpoints Which Could Absolutely Explode During The Early Stages Of 2023- by Michael Snyder - http://endoftheamericandream.com/5-global-flashpoints-which-could-absolutely-explode-during-the-early-stages-of-2023/ Will 2023 be a year when extremely destructive conflicts erupt all over the world? We are certainly already living in a time of �wars and rumors of wars�, and tensions areapproaching the boiling point in a number of key global flashpoints right now. If several more major conflicts were to suddenly begin next year, we could potentially witness an extended period of geopolitical instability that would be unlike anything thatwe have ever witnessed. It is easy to start wars, but it is much harder to end them. If you doubt this, just look at what is going on in Ukraine. There is no end in sight for that conflict, and there are several other wars that could literally erupt at anytime. The following are 5 global flashpoints which could absolutely explode during the early stages of 2023� #1 Serbia Are you ready for another war in the Balkans? Ethnic tensions have risen to the highest level in more than two decades, and the president of Serbia just convened an emergencygathering of his national security council� Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has met his national security council as tensions rise in Kosovo between the authorities there and ethnic Serbs. On Saturday a stun grenade was thrown at EU police in north Kosovo, where Serbs form a majority, and local police exchanged fire with unknown groups. Ethnic Serbs set up road blocks after Kosovan police were deployed in a dispute over car number plates. Some in the region now believe that war is �inevitable�, and Kosovo is already asking NATO to step in and intervene� At a news conference in Kosovo�s capital Pristina on Sunday, Prime Minister Albin Kurti asked the Kosovo Force (KFOR), a NATO-led international peacekeeping force, to guarantee �freedom of movement,� as he accused �criminal gangs� of blocking roads. A fragile peace has been preserved in Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008 following the 1998-99 war in which NATO intervened to protect Kosovo�s Albanianmajority. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo�s independence. #2 The Disputed Border Between China And India On Tuesday, we learned that there has been yet another violent clash along the hotly disputed border between China and India� Soldiers from India and China clashed last week along their disputed border, India�s defense minister said Tuesday, in the latest violence along the contested frontier sinceJune 2020, when troops from both countries were killed in a deadly brawl. Rajnath Singh, who addressed lawmakers in parliament, said Friday�s encounter along the Tawang sector of eastern Arunachal Pradesh state started when Chinese troops �encroachedinto Indian territory� and �unilaterally tried to change the status quo� along the disputed border near Yangtze. The Chinese just can�t seem to stop provoking India, and a full-blown conflict between the two nations could escalate out of control very rapidly. Let us hope that does not happen, because both China and India possess nuclear weapons. #3 Taiwan For a long time, we have been warned that China will eventually invade Taiwan. Unfortunately, tensions in the region just continue to escalate, and on Tuesday the Chinese sent more bombers into Taiwan�s air defense zone than ever before� China sent a record 18 nuclear-capable bombers into Taiwan�s air defence zone, Taipei said on Tuesday (Dec 13), just days after Beijing banned more Taiwanese imports in thelatest sign of deteriorating ties. Democratic Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which sees the self-ruled island as part of its territory to be seized one day. #4 Iran There will be a war between Iran and Israel. Of course the IDF has already been regularly hitting Iranian-backed forces inside Syria on a regular basis, but we should be thankful that a full-blown war in which missilesare flying back and forth between the two nations hasn�t started yet. Unfortunately, we are closer than ever to that point. In fact, it is being reported that Israel is actually warning that it may bomb the airport in Beirut �if it determinesthat Iran is smuggling weapons on civilian planes�� According to Israeli media reports, Israel has warned Lebanon that Israel Defense Forces could bomb Beirut�s airport if it determines that Iran is smuggling weapons on civilianplanes destined for the terrorist group Hezbollah. The alleged weapons smuggling was reported by a London-based Arabic language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, which quoted Israeli sources who said Israel issued the warning. When a full-blown war between Iran and Israel finally starts, there will be no holding back by either side. The death and destruction such a war will cause will shock the entire world, and the global oil trade will be thrown into a state of complete and utter chaos. #5 Ukraine The United States and Russia both continue to escalate the horrifying conflict in Ukraine. Now that Russia is bombing the living daylights out of Ukraine�s power grid, the U.S. is choosing to respond by giving Patriot missiles systems to the Ukrainians� Pentagon officials are in the final stages of preparing a plan to send a Patriot air defense missile system to Ukraine to counter Russian aerial assaults, U.S. officials toldCBS News. The plan has not yet been approved by either the Pentagon or the White House, but that could come as early as this week. This represents a major escalation, and it is also being reported that the Biden administration has given the Ukrainian government the green light to conduct drone strikesdeep inside of Russia. Needless to say, the Russians are not pleased at all about having to deal with drone strikes deep inside their own territory. In fact, some prominent Russian voices are warningthat the U.S. and Russia are getting dangerously close to the unthinkable. The following comes from a British news source� Mad Vlad Putin�s henchmen have fired a warning shot that the Ukraine conflict could turn into a �full-scale nuclear war.� They made the stark comments after the US gave the go-ahead for Kyiv to kick off drone strikes into Russia. We don�t see such talk on U.S. television. The Biden administration continues to assure all of us that the risk of nuclear war is extremely low, but the Russians see things very differently� One source in Putin�s circle said: �This is playing with fire, risking full-scale war which could easily go nuclear.� Another added: �Who will now give Moscow the green light for strikes against Ukrainian decision-making centres?� Most people never imagined that World War I would get as bad as it did. And most people never imagined that World War II would result in tens of millions of deaths. Now we have entered the early stages of a third world war, and this time the major participants are armed with nuclear weapons. If we don�t pull back from the brink, the consequences could potentially be far beyond what most people could even imagine right now. So let us pray for peace, because a global war in which hundreds of millions of people die is not an acceptable option. -----------------------------------