The Chinese Government Is Not Threatening Nuclear War
The Claim
The Chinese government has threatened to start a nuclear war with the U.S. by announcing a significant expansion of its nuclear weapons arsenal.
News posted on
Emerging story
Recently, a number of news outlets such as the New York Post and One America News have written stories under headlines such as, “China Threatens Nuclear War.” These stories go on to state that the threats come from the Chinese government and that the result would be an intense showdown with the U.S.
Social media posts sharing these headlines have created significant reactions on social media. On Twitter alone, the One America News post of the article has gained over 1,000 interactions.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation concludes that it is misleading for the news outlets to state that the Chinese government is threatening nuclear war with the U.S. The claims come from the Chinese media.
The source for these claims is an opinion post on the Chinese news site Global Times. This piece, which is titled, “Cornerstone of China’s strategic deterrence against the US: more nuclear missiles and warheads,” is authored by Hu Xijin, who is also the editor-in-chief of the newspaper.
Global Times is published by the Chinese government. However, Hu Xijin does not represent the entirety of the Chinese government or their military decisions. Additionally, while Xijin is highly supportive of the Chinese government, he has been documented to make statements that are not reflective of the government’s official position as well. In 2019, he gave an interview with CNN in which he discussed the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square, which is a taboo subject in Chinese state media. Therefore, it is incorrect to state that the opinion of one person, who is adjacent to the Chinese government, is a threat of nuclear war from the Chinese government.
This is not the first time that Xijin has called upon China to increase its nuclear stockpile. He previously made these comments in May 2020. At this time, he called upon China to increase its nuclear stockpile to 1,000 warheads. However, no significant increase in China’s nuclear capability occurred at this time. From 2020 to 2021, China’s nuclear arsenal increased from 320 warheads to 350 warheads. For comparison, the U.S.’s nuclear arsenal increased over the same time period from 5,550 to 5,800.
As an opinion piece in a Chinese newspaper does not reflect the actions of the entire Chinese government, and as the author’s previous calls for a major escalation in Chinese nuclear capability went largely unheeded, we rate these claims that the Chinese government is threatening nuclear war as misleading.
