Monday, January 30, 2012

Digging into China's Nuclear Tunnels

Since 2008, Georgetown University professor and former top Pentagon official, Phillip A. Karber, has been working diligently with some of his most dedicated undergraduate students in order to uncover what is really going on in the Sichuan province of China. After a massive earthquake struck the Sichuan provice, Karber's committee, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, was intrigued by news reports of a large response of Chinese radiation technicians, who rushed to the areas struck most by the earthquake. But what do earthquakes have to do with radiation technicians? These reports sparked a large amount of curiosity amongst Karber and his committee, leading to the beginning of his extensive research. Since then, he has introduced the scenario to his students and, with the help of their persistent efforts to find the truth, has uncovered a myriad of Chinese military documents which have provided substantial evidence that suggests China has been secretly building up their nuclear arsenal right under our noses.

It is unknown how many nuclear warheads China may currently possess, for the estimate ranges anywhere from 80 to 3,000. Regardless, any amount of nuclear weapons outside the United States is concerning, and the fact that China is covertly increasing their weapon supply is equally alarming. My biggest question regarding this article is why China feels the need to increase their arsenal of nuclear weapons now? Are they preparing for an attack or a war? China's population is over 1.3 million people, roughly four times the population of the U.S. That alone puts America at a huge disadvantage if conflicts with China ever arose. Factor in the mysterious amount of nuclear weapons that may be hidden underground in the Sichuan province of China, which could possibly be as many as 3,000 warheads (the U.S. currently has 5,000), and that seems to pose a highly dangerous potential threat.

So Aragon Hitchhikers, what do you think?

5 comments:

ThomasP said...

Just thinking about any country possessing nuclear weapons is very scary. To answer your question in my opinion, I would have to say that China feels the need to have more nuclear weapons because they want to feel more powerful than other countries. They want to have control. If a conflict occurs, China (if they continue to increase their arsenal of nuclear weapons) will have the most influence and maybe even use the nuclear weapons as a bargaining chip. "We won't shoot our nuclear weapons at you if you dont attack us." Also they want to have more power than the U.S.
I think that it is unbelievable that almost every country have a weapon that can kill millions and millions of people with a push of a button.

Ashley Petroff said...

I agree with you, Thomas. I think China wants a competitive edge in defense. However, the article I posted brought up another good point. We know that these tunnels exist, but we do not know how many of them contain nuclear missiles. If empty, could these tunnels double as bomb shelters for the Chinese people? Supposedly, they are deep enough underground that anyone inside of them could survive a nuclear attack.If this is the case, then that gives the Chinese military an advantage over the U.S. We have no way of saving ourselves from a nuclear attack, but they might.

vinhdoan said...

This is oddly reminiscent of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. When the quantity of nuclear arms were at their peak, many government officials and citizens were fearful of a nuclear attack. Bomb shelters in America were built in many suburban homes and panic was apparent. This makes me wonder if China is expecting some sort of nuclear danger in the future because as of now, I don't think China has the firepower to withstand a nuclear war even with its large population. These tunnels send a foreboding message, but I hope China is simply suffering from a case of temporary paranoia rather than responding to information of potential threats.

Maegan Corti said...

I agree with Ashley and Thomas. It's really scary to think about any other country producing more weapons. The fact that they are making more weapons makes it seem like they are getting ready to do something big. It also seems that they want to have control and be more powerful than other countries(according to this article). This article seems as if its giving a different approach than its actually trying to make.

itsALEXZ said...

First, I would like to say that China's population is actually over 1.3 billion people. Secondly, it is extremely unfair to see the words "China" and "highly dangerous potential threat" together. Not once is the threat of possible nuclear attack from the UK, France, Russia, India, Pakistan, and North Korea addressed.

Also China holds a moderate amount of the U.S debt (8% or 1.2 trillion dollars). My question to you is: Does it make sense for a foreign country to invest so heavily into American debt only to attack them with nuclear weaponry?

If you really want to know why countries are still so driven to create nuclear weaponry, ask yourself why hasn't the U.S continued to de-arm its current supply of such weapons. It is fair that Americans should have access to WMDs while the rest of the world is forced to hold its breathe?

Maegan, if it's scary to think of other countries making nuclear weapons, is it not possible that countries without that kind of firepower feel even more threatened?