China is developing nuclear weapons designed for battlefield use and “to coerce others,” a senior British official warned as world leaders brace for a new Taiwan crisis.

“We must acknowledge that existing nuclear states are investing in novel nuclear technologies and developing new warfighting nuclear systems, which they are integrating into their military strategies and doctrines and into their political rhetoric to seek to coerce others,” U.K. National Security Adviser Sir Stephen Lovegrove told the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Wednesday. “For example, we have clear concerns about China’s nuclear modernization program that will increase both the number and types of nuclear weapon systems in its arsenal.”

The perception that China seeks a “warfighting” nuclear arsenal will reinforce Indo-Pacific anxieties that Beijing will heed Russia’s example in launching wars of aggression while using the threat of nuclear weapons to deter effective counterattacks. The United Kingdom aired that warning as U.S. and Chinese officials prepare for a crisis in Taiwan and Chinese Communist officials demand that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scrap a visit to the island democracy.

“If the U.S. side insists on making the visit and challenges China’s red line, it will be met with resolute countermeasures,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Wednesday. “The U.S must assume full responsibility for any serious consequence arising thereof.”

CHINA THREAT: MILITARY ‘WON’T SIT IDLY BY’ IF PELOSI VISITS TAIWAN

The controversy could culminate in the most nerve-wracking exercise in saber-rattling since 1996, when then-President Bill Clinton used a show of U.S. Naval power in the Taiwan Strait to over-awe the Chinese Communist regime, which had conducted missile launches and troop mobilizations on a scale that raised the prospect of a mainland assault against the island. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has warned that Taiwanese authorities “cannot rely on outsiders” — a clear reference to the United States — to provide for their security while accusing Taipei of trying to alter the delicate balance between the two governments.

“If they continue, Taiwan will be pushed into the abyss of disaster and bring serious harm to the majority of Taiwan compatriots,” Wang said Wednesday, per the South China Morning Post. “The majority of Taiwan compatriots must deeply understand that reunification is beneficial, and that Taiwan independence is a dead end. They should understand that they cannot rely on outsiders.”

The USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group was spotted in the South China Sea on July 26, according to the South China Sea Probing Initiative. The Chinese think tank previously had tracked the naval force in the Strait of Malacca, which could support the inference that U.S. forces are preparing for a surge in military tensions.

“The U.S. military has not disclosed its final destination, but the route would bring the carrier group to the Taiwan Strait if it continues in the same direction,” the South China Morning Post observed.

President Joe Biden’s administration has signaled a desire for Pelosi to steer clear of Taiwan, but she has not made any public decision. A White House National Security Council official acknowledged Tuesday that, “As appropriate, the Department of Defense gets involved” in ensuring the House speaker’s security during foreign travel.

Lovegrove’s misgiving about nuclear coercion by China amplifies a warning sounded last month by Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, who told Shangri-La Dialogue of his “strong sense of urgency that Ukraine today, may be East Asia tomorrow,” a danger intensified by the precedent set by “Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons.” The Japanese Defense Ministry has linked China’s “rapid improvement of its military power in qualitative and quantitative terms with focus on nuclear, missile, naval and air forces” to Beijing’s apparent aggression in territorial disputes with Tokyo.

“China is relentlessly continuing unilateral attempts to change the status quo by coercion near the Senkaku Islands, leading to a matter of grave concern,” the Japanese Defense Ministry emphasized in a white paper published last week. “In October 2021, Chinese and Russian warships conducted joint sails that circled around Japan. This exercise seemed to have been intended as a show of force against Japan.”

Japanese officials emphasized that “cooperation between China and Russia [is] making the struggle for international order a global issue,” building on their 2021 white paper’s revelation of a “sense of crisis” about the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Foreign Ministry, after invoking Japan’s agreement to relinquish Taiwan to Chinese control in 1945, maintained that the current controversies over Taiwan amount to an attempt to reverse the outcomes of the Second World War.

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Taiwan is the last bastion of the Chinese government named in those surrender documents, which lost their authority on the mainland due to the 1949 Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War. The mainland regime claims sovereignty over the island, but the Chinese Communist Party never has ruled there. The U.S. cut diplomatic ties with the government in Taipei as a requirement of establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing, but Washington maintains a friendly relationship with Taiwanese officials and provides regular arms sales intended to deter a Chinese invasion.

“This is an affront to the outcomes of the victory of the world anti-fascist war,” Zhao said Tuesday, referring to actions that “keep challenging China’s red line” with respect to Taiwan. “When the one-China principle is fully recognized and earnestly followed, the Taiwan Strait would remain calm and tranquil. Otherwise, there would be dark clouds or even violent storms across the Taiwan Strait. To remember the history of the issuance of the Potsdam Proclamation can remind the world that to forget history means to betray it.”

Original Location: UK warns about China’s ‘warfighting’ nuclear weapons as Taiwan crisis looms

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