Washington: People’s Liberation Army Navy of China has equipped its nuclear submarines with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). With this, the United States is now in striking range of Chinese submarines, which is a major security threat to the United States. Citing this, the United States has warned that they are closely monitoring every move made by China. Meanwhile, China is playing it down by stating that the United States is creating unnecessary regional tension by giving undue importance to the deployment of ICBMs.
US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met last week during the G20 summit in Indonesia. In this three-hour meeting, the US President was criticized for taking a soft stance on Corona, Taiwan, and other issues. As the meeting was in Bali, China quietly deployed JL-3 ICBMs on six nuclear Jin-class submarines. A leading US news agency released this information.
The JL-2 ballistic missiles used previously in the Chinese Navy had a range of 7,200 kilometres. China claims that the JL-3 intercontinental ballistic missile can destroy targets up to a range of 10,000 kilometres. China had announced plans to deploy JL-2 ICBMs and that the deployment of JL-3 was spaced out. However, the US news agency claims that China has decided to deploy these missiles on nuclear submarines.
The US news agency recalled the Chinese Ministry of Defence’s announcement from a 2021 military report that it would deploy missiles capable of targeting the United States. The US news agency pointed out that a Chinese military report warned that rockets launched from Chinese submarines stationed in the South China Sea and Bohai Gulf could reach the United States.
Admiral Sam Paparo, head of the US Indo-Pacific Fleet, had objected to this new Chinese deployment. He claimed that these missiles were created to threaten the United States. Admiral Paparo alleged that the United States is closely monitoring these submarines. However, the Global Times, the Chinese government’s mouthpiece, has rejected these allegations and said that the ballistic missiles were deployed in defence from countries threatening China with nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, China’s naval activities in the Indo-Pacific region are very alarming. A few days ago, the US Indo-Pacific Command warned that a security threat exists to the United States and its allies in the area.
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