‘We’re Not Even Raising The Bar’: House Intel Chair Says US Isn’t Keeping Pace With China’s Buildup Of Nuclear Weapons
Harold Hutchison on July 5, 2023
Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio said Wednesday that the Biden administration wasn’t “even raising the bar” to address China’s nuclear weapons buildup.
“On the left, their philosophy has been, ‘we don’t want missile defense because if we do it will make others want to build more nuclear weapons,’” Turner, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow, a former Trump administration official. “Unfortunately, we have not done missile defense and that is exactly what others did anyway, they built more nuclear weapons.”
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“Not only was North Korea not nuclear at the time when Reagan called us to the challenge, and Iran certainly didn’t have a nuclear weapons program, but China is tripling its nuclear weapons pointed at the United States and we’re not even raising the bar as to what our missile defense capabilities are,” Turner continued.
China has been expanding its nuclear capabilities, including an effort to increase its force of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the Wall Street Journal reported in April 2022. The buildup includes silos for 100 DF-41 ICBMs, each of which can carry up to ten warheads and hit targets up to 15,000 kilometers away, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“On the left, they really believe that nuclear weapons in themselves are deterrents… they believe missile defense itself is provocative, that is the provocative step. I think it is provocative when someone makes another nuclear weapon and puts it in a silo pointed at the United States,” Turner said.
Turner pointed to Israel’s Iron Dome system, which has seen action against rockets and missiles fired at the country by Hamas.
“We have the technology,” Turner said. “We worked with Israel to deploy it. Israel has proven it is cost effective, it works, it is de-escalatory. It works. We need to pursue this.”
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