“The pace at which China is moving is stunning,” says Gen. John Hyten, the No. 2-ranking U.S. military officer. He previously commanded U.S. nuclear forces and supervised Air Force space operations.
This is a possible change in the global balance of power, which has favored the United States for decades. A realignment does not act as a direct threat to the United States but could hinder U.S. relations in Asia. New signs of how the Pentagon plans to deal with the China challenge may appear in the coming weeks. The Administration will review nuclear weapons, global troop basing, and overall defense strategy.
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As for the moment, Officials wonder how Beijing is marshaling the resources, technology, and political will to make fast additions — so fast that the Biden Administration is trying to reorient all sides of U.S. foreign and defense policy.
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The latest example of the extraordinary pace is China's test of a hypersonic weapon fitted to encircling Earth before reentering the atmosphere and gliding on a maneuverable path to its destination. The weapon system's design is intended to avoid U.S. missile defenses. Although Beijing maintained it was testing a reusable space vehicle, not a missile, the test seemed to have disturbed U.S. officials.
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Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the test was “very close” to being a Sputnik moment, akin to the 1957 launching by the Soviet Union of the world's first space satellite,. This launch shocked the world and spread concerns that the United States had fallen behind technologically. What followed was the nuclear arms and space race that eventually bankrupted the Soviet Union.
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Milley and other U.S. Officials have refused to talk about details of the Chinese test, saying they are secret. Milley said it is “very concerning” for the United States but added that China's military modernization problems have been an issue for much longer.
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“That’s just one weapon system,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview. "The Chinese military capabilities are much greater than that. They’re expanding rapidly in space, in cyber, and then in the traditional domains of land, sea, and air.”
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On the nuclear front, private satellite imagery in recent months has shown significant additions of launch silos that suggest the probability that China intends to increase its fleet of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles or ICBMs.