Are China And Russia On A Nuclear Collision Course With The United States?

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

Gordon G. Chang, Daily Beast: China and Russia Have Set a Nuclear Collision Course With the United States

Backed up by growing nuclear arsenals, China and Russia are waging little ‘asymmetric’ wars to expand their territory and influence. Can the U.S. stop them? They think not.

China, the New York Times reported last week, “can now challenge American military supremacy in the places that matter most to it: the waters around Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea.” Therefore, Beijing can, in the words of the paper, “make intervention in the region too costly for Washington to contemplate.”

Too costly to contemplate? Unfortunately, assessments like these, often heard in U.S. policy circles, can embolden the already arrogant Chinese and make their adventurism—and war—more likely.

Moreover, any conflict between China and the United States in the Pacific could quickly escalate to nuclear war.

Read more ....

Update #1: Why China and Russia Are Obsessed With Vast New War Games (Op-ed)
Update #2: Russia’s Vostok-2018: A Rehearsal for Global War? (Stephen Blank, RCD)

WNU Editor: Russia will not join China in a war against the U.S.. Such a conflict will quickly escalate into a nuclear confrontation, and that is not in Moscow's strategic interest (or anyone else). My concern is on what China will do. They have made a commitment on reinforcing their territorial claims .... including on Taiwan. Will they reinforce these claims with their military .... I am not sure of the answer.