China’s Nuclear Expansion: The Conventional Counterforce Driver Western Debates Underweight
The source argues that China’s nuclear buildup is significantly shaped by Beijing’s assessment that U.S. and allied conventional precision-strike and sensing capabilities threaten China’s second-strike survivability. It warns that conventional-nuclear entanglement—especially in a Taiwan contingency—raises misinterpretation risks, while the post–New START arms control gap leaves few tools to slow the action-reaction cycle.