As US Pacific allies eye nuclear submarines, should China be concerned?
Australia, South Korea and Japan want to build the vessels, potentially complicating Beijing’s naval deterrence in the region, analysts say
According to analysts, these US allies face many challenges in building nuclear-powered submarines, which could take several decades to complete, but these developments could complicate Beijing’s calculation of naval deterrence in the region, especially during a conflict in the Taiwan Strait.
China’s next 5-year plan aims to narrow the nuclear gap with US and Russia, analysts say
Beijing’s proposed national blueprint links strategic forces with the global balance for the first time
Details of the proposal were released on Tuesday, including a pledge to “strengthen strategic deterrence capabilities, [and] safeguard global strategic balance and stability”.
Strategic deterrence is generally understood to refer to nuclear forces, and the term has appeared in previous and current Chinese government documents.
In his party congress report in 2022, Xi said China would “build a strong strategic deterrence system”. And in 2021, the 14th five-year plan proposal said the country would “build a high-level strategic deterrence capability”.
However, this is the first time such a document has explicitly linked a nuclear build-up to maintaining a “global strategic balance and stability”.
