‘Risks of a US-China Conflagration in the Pacific Quite High’
SputnikNews.com
26.05.2016
Commenting on growing US-Chinese tensions in the South China Sea region, and Beijing’s announcement that it would deploy nuclear-armed subs to the Pacific in response to US missile defenses in South Korea, University of Maryland professor John Short warned that the risks of a military confrontation between the two powers are ‘quite high’.
On Thursday, citing Chinese military sources, The Guardian reported that China “is poised to deploy submarines with nuclear missiles into the Pacific Ocean for the first time, [Beijing] arguing that new US weapons systems have so undermined [its] existing deterrent force that it has been left with no alternative.”
In March, the US unveiled plans to station its THAAD mobile anti-ballistic missile system in South Korea, supposedly in response to ongoing North Korean missile and nuclear weapons testing. But Beijing has complained that THAAD’s range extends across much of China as well, thus undermining its nuclear deterrent.
Speaking to Radio Sputnik about the escalating tensions over THAAD, University of Maryland public policy professor Dr. John Short suggested that Beijing does have reason to be concerned.
“They have some concern – they feel hemmed in; they feel that they are unable to push past the coastal defenses, so they do have some basis [for the nuclear submarine deployment].” At the same time, Short insisted that Beijing also realizes that the US systems are really geared against North Korea. In this regard, “it’s a useful debating point for them,” he said.
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