Washington reportedly updated its nuclear weapons guidance with focus on China
US President Joe Biden has approved a highly classified nuclear strategy aimed at deterring Russia, China and North Korea, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed Pentagon and National Security Council officials.
The document called “Guidance for nuclear employment” was adopted in March, marking the first time that U.S. nuclear doctrine has focused on Beijing’s rapidly developing nuclear capabilities, the newspaper said.
According to the NYT, the document is updated approximately every four years and is so secret that there are no digitized copies.
Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy Vipin Narang told reporters earlier this month that Biden “recently issued updated guidance on the employment of nuclear weapons to take into account multiple nuclear-armed adversaries.” China’s growing nuclear arsenal was something the US “neither anticipated nor accounted for” during nuclear planning decades ago, he added.
Asked about the NYT report, White House spokesman Sean Savett said: “The guidance issued earlier this year is not a response to any specific entity, country or threat.”
In 2023, the Pentagon estimated that China will double its stockpile of operational nuclear warheads to over 1,000 by 2030, “many of which will be deployed at higher readiness levels.” The US currently has 5,550 warheads, while Russia has 6,255, according to estimates by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The nuclear strategy review comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and its NATO allies on one side and China and Russia on the other, with both sides accusing each other of escalation over Ukraine and Taiwan. Washington has also been rattled by North Korea’s increased ballistic missile tests.
Both Moscow and Beijing have accused the US of inciting conflicts around the world and trying to impose its will on other countries. Earlier this month, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang called on the US and its allies “abandon the Cold War mentality.”
During his trip to China in May, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that “strategic partnership” between Moscow and Beijing “it is not directed against anyone.”