China Now Has More ICBM Launchers Than the U.S.

China now has more land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (icbm) launchers than the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on February 7, based on congressional testimony. This fuels debate among U.S. lawmakers about how to counter China’s growing belligerence, especially after a mysterious Chinese balloon recently floated over the nation for almost a week.

Many of China’s missile silos are presently sitting empty, and the U.S. still has a numeric advantage in submarine-launched missiles, long-range bombers and nuclear warheads, according to U.S. officials. However, the increase of icbm launchers is another clear step in China’s continued expansion of its nuclear forces. Last year, the U.S. Department of Defense reported that China is expected to triple its nuclear stockpile by 2035.

Republican lawmakers said that the growing number of Chinese launchers is indicative of its ambitions to build an enormous nuclear arsenal, and that the U.S. must respond by expanding and modernizing its own nuclear forces:

China is rapidly approaching parity with the United States. We cannot allow that to happen. The time for us to adjust our force posture and increase capabilities to meet this threat is now.
—Rep. Mike Rogers, chair of the House Armed Services Committee

Rogers added that a treaty between the U.S. and Russia, known as New start, currently prevents the U.S. from expanding its nuclear forces. The treaty, which China isn’t a part of, will expire in 2026.

We need to watch the rising nuclear threat from China, as well as Russia, Iran and others.

Prophecy says: In Matthew 24, Jesus Christ prophesied of a global nuclear war that could potentially wipe out every human on Earth: “except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved” (verse 22). In his booklet Nuclear Armageddon Is ‘At the Door,’ Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes: “We are now at the edge of this nuclear abyss.”