According to the New York Times, in March this year, Biden approved the revised strategic document, the Guidance on the Use of Nuclear Weapons. The document is updated every four years and is highly confidential. The revised strategy attempts to prepare the United States for possible nuclear challenges from China, Russia and other countries.
The New York Times revealed that although the White House has never announced that Biden has approved this new nuclear strategy, two people were recently allowed to mention its contents. Earlier this month, Vipin Narain, a former U.S. Department of Defense official and an expert on nuclear strategy at MIT, said that President Biden "recently issued updated Nuclear Weapons Employment Guidance to deal with multiple adversaries possessing nuclear weapons." . He added that the Guidance takes into account the "significant growth in the size and diversity" of China's nuclear arsenal. In June this year, Pranay Vardy, senior director for arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation at the US National Security Council, also mentioned this document. He said the new strategy emphasizes the need to deter Russia, China and other countries at the same time.
The New York Times claimed that in the past, the possibility that U.S. adversaries could coordinate nuclear threats to defeat the U.S. nuclear arsenal seemed slim, but the partnership that is being formed between Russia and China, as well as the provision of weapons to Russia by Iran and other countries in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, conventional weapons, fundamentally changing the thinking of the United States.
"The new strategic document is a reminder that whoever takes office as US president on January 20 next year will face a nuclear environment that is more changed and more turbulent than three years ago." The report exaggerated that since Truman's presidency, the strategy has been overwhelmingly focused on the Soviet and Russian arsenals. Now the new guidance document approved by Biden shows that the situation is changing rapidly. The Pentagon estimates that by 2030, China's nuclear warheads will increase to 1,000 and by 2035 will reach 1,500, roughly equivalent to the number currently deployed by the United States and Russia.
The United States is not only expanding its nuclear arsenal, but also spreading its "nuclear umbrella" and even nuclear technology. In the US-Japan "2+2" talks held in July, the two countries expressed concerns about the so-called "continued rapid expansion of China's nuclear arsenal" and held the first "extended deterrence" ministerial meeting. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said that this is intended to send a message to the outside world that the United States has a strong desire to use force, including nuclear weapons, to protect Japan. Since 2010, the diplomatic and defense departments of the two countries have been conducting affairs-level consultations on the issue of "extended deterrence", and this year they established an independent ministerial framework for the first time.
According to the Associated Press, in July, the United States and South Korea jointly issued a "Joint Statement of the United States and South Korea on Nuclear Deterrence and Nuclear Operations Guidelines on the Korean Peninsula". According to the report, last year, the United States and South Korea established a consultation group to strengthen communication on nuclear operations and discuss how to integrate US nuclear weapons and South Korean conventional weapons in various emergency situations. The United States has long promised to use all its capabilities, including nuclear weapons, to defend South Korea if it is attacked.
On the 12th of this month, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Marrs said that it had signed a nuclear-powered submarine cooperation agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom, allowing the three countries to exchange nuclear materials and nuclear information. In recent years, the United States has withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Missile Treaty, violated the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and horizontally proliferated weapon-grade nuclear materials to other countries, attempting to undermine international consensus and force China into the disarmament process of the two superpowers of the United States and Russia. At the same time, it has vertically proliferated nuclear weapons by upgrading vehicles and building miniaturized warheads, lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, and is unwilling to even make "negative security assurances" to most non-nuclear countries. All of this is trampling on the international nuclear arms control consensus and process, and disregarding the international morality and obligations of the largest nuclear power.