The People’s Republic of China did not let the coronavirus pandemic stop its military progress, according to the Department of Defense.
China “continued its efforts to advance its overall development” in 2020 despite the pandemic, according to DoD’s Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China report, released on Wednesday.
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While the virus was first detected in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, the Chinese government “sought to deflect any culpability for the virus and its initial spread, and to capitalize on its narrative of domestic success and foreign assistance.”
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The Chinese government seeks to achieve “‘the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation’ by 2049 or surpass U.S. global influence and power, displace U.S. alliances and security partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region, and revise the international order to be more advantageous to Beijing’s authoritarian system and national interests,” the report lays out.
They have accelerated the pace of their nuclear expansion program to the point where they could “have up to 700 deliverable nuclear warheads” within roughly five years, while the report alleges that the country “likely intends to have at least 1,000 warheads by 2030, exceeding the pace and size the DoD projected in 2020.”
While the world continues to combat the coronavirus, China has also “engaged in biological activities with potential dual-use applications,” according to the report, though the United States is unable to verify that the Chinese are meeting their obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The report on China’s military expansion comes at a trying time between them and the U.S. The two adversaries are at odds over Taiwan, and tension has emerged following the reports of China’s recent hypersonic missile test.
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Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the test was “one of the largest shifts in global geostrategic power that the world has witnessed. It only happens once in a while, and it’s not stand-alone,” during a speaking event on Wednesday.
China’s denial of the hypersonic missile test, which the U.S. has admitted it is unprepared to defend against, comes on the heels of a large-scale Chinese air incursion of Taiwan in October. Chinese forces sent an unprecedented number of warplanes, roughly 150, toward the island, according to the BBC.
