Chinese Journalist Hu Xijin: China Needs To Strengthen Its Offensive Nuclear Capabilities

Chinese journalist Hu Xijin, the former Editor-in-Chief of the Chinese state-run outlet Global Times, said in a video that was posted on June 20, 2022 to the Global Times YouTube channel that China needs to strengthen its offensive nuclear capabilities, which are at the heart of China's nuclear deterrence. He also said that China's development and testing of land-based missile interception systems is a form of strategic deterrence meant to deter a potential American nuclear attack.

Hu Xijin: "Chinese Ministry of National Defense announced on Sunday that China has conducted a land-based mid-course missile interception test and achieved the desired objective. This is the fifth announcement of its kind since China first conducted a land-based mid-course missile interception test in 2010. China has achieved a great deal of progress during the past years and has mastered this technology.

"China is unlike the U.S., which has military bases around the world, so its land-based missile interception systems can be deployed in a most rationalized way. However, China can fix this weak link through sea-based and air-based deployments. If the ground-based mid-course anti-missile system is really used in actual combat, it basically means that a nuclear war has broken out, which is unbearable for the entire human race. Therefore, the development of ground-based mid-course missile interception technology is kind of strategic deterrence.

"Meanwhile, the Chinese people are well aware that it is far from enough for China to rely on ground-based anti-missile technologies to deter the US. China also needs to further strengthen its offensive capabilities of nuclear weapons, which is the nub of China's strategic deterrence."