Expert: China's development of military strength is moderate

"The US is simply having ulterior motives in playing up the fallacy that the nuclear force of the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLAN) will exceed that of America in 2020. Some in the US made this judgment based on a wrong logic that 'rapid economic growth is bound to lead to huge military expansion'." China implements a strategic concept of active defense, and China's development of military strength has always been effective and moderate, Li Jie, military expert of the PLAN, said in an interview.

Li said that even if China can possess and deploy the 096-type strategic nuclear submarines in 2020, it only indicates that China is narrowing the gap with the US in terms of technical performance of its submarines. For some key technologies, China needs to quicken its pace to catch up. The overall strength of the PLAN still lags far behind those of the US and Russia.

Such terms as "threat" and "danger" have frequently shown up in the US media. The Inquisitr News of US claimed that China's new nuclear submarine "indicates that it has the credible ability to launch maritime nuclear strikes." Meanwhile, a report of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission claims that China's new nuclear weapons can break through the US's ballistic missile defense system, "putting the US as a whole at risk".

An article of the Wall Street Journal claimed in October last year that though the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) has kept bringing forth new warplanes, only nuclear submarines are the more strategic weapons. The mere appearance of a strategic nuclear submarine is enough to deter other countries.

The article claimed that during the Cold War, both US and the Soviet Union hid their strategic nuclear submarines underwater and sent their "Hunter-Killers" to hunt down the strategic nuclear submarines of the other side. With China's nuclear submarines getting stronger today, such underwater "cat and mouse" games have also been played in the Asian waters.

To respond to the rise of China's nuclear submarines, The US began to deploy six P-8 Poseidon aircraft in Okinawa, and meanwhile restarted its underwater monitoring system which was used to hunt for the submarines of the Soviet Union. In addition, it has also developed new technologies to deal with China's submarines, such as the underwater unmanned vehicle.

But the article also said that compared with the US who has 14 strategic nuclear submarines and 55 attack nuclear submarines, China, with only 4 strategic nuclear submarines, is still lagging far behind.

An article on the Voice of Russia radio claimed on December 20, 2014 that the issue concerning China's nuclear force has always been the concerns of observers, with various comments in this regard: some people think it is negligible, and some claim that China may possess at least 150 nuclear warheads. The report quoting Kashin, expert of Russia's Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, claimed that anyway, China has the fewest nuclear warheads among the 5 official nuclear powers.

Concerning strategic nuclear weapons, China has always been adhering to the principle of minimum containment, and does not compete with other nuclear powers in terms of the quantity of nuclear warheads. China is trying to ensure its capability to counterattack its enemy that launches nuclear attacks.

The article said that as the relatively weak state, China is obviously reluctant to be involved in any nuclear wars, as long as its rival does not intend to occupy China's territory by force.

After the US launched its "Return to Asia-Pacific" strategy, China, as a country that has been developing the most rapidly in the Asian-Pacific region, is bound to become the object of focus and target of containment for US and western countries, whether in politics, economy and diplomacy, or in military affairs such as nuclear weapons, said Yang Chengjun, military expert of the PLA Second Artillery Forces (SAF) in an interview.

Yang expressed that the international calls for nuclear arms control have been increasingly strong in recent years, and China adheres to its consistent solemn promise: no first use of nuclear weapons and no use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states and nuclear-free zones. Nor will China compete with other nuclear powers in terms of the quantity and scale of nuclear weapons.