S8 Ep161: The Nuclear Threat: China's Arsenal Expansion and No First Use Abandonment — Peter Huessy — Huessy argues that China has effectively abandoned its official "No First Use" nuclear policy, evidenced through explicit nuclear threats against Japan regarding T
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 4 December 2025
⏱️ 11 minutes
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Summary
- The Nuclear Threat: China's Arsenal Expansion and No First Use Abandonment — Peter Huessy — Huessy argues that China has effectively abandoned its official "No First Use" nuclear policy, evidenced through explicit nuclear threats against Japan regarding Taiwan intervention scenarios. Huessy documents massive American intelligence failures regarding Chinese nuclear arsenal size, with projections indicating Beijing will possess thousands of warheads by the 2030s rather than maintaining historically minimal deterrent levels. Huessy proposes that potential South Korean or Japanese nuclear weapons development could leverage coercive pressure compelling Chinese engagement in serious arms control negotiations.
Transcript
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| 0:27.8 | The Home of Homes. |
| 0:35.8 | This is CBS, I on the World. |
| 0:38.1 | I'm John Belcher with Gordon Chang. |
| 0:39.8 | Nuclear weapons, 21st century, China, Russia, and the future of nuclear war. |
| 0:49.1 | Here it is again. |
| 0:50.8 | Cold War is over and the nukes are with us. |
| 0:52.8 | We welcome our colleague Peter Husey, |
| 0:55.9 | president of geostrategic analysis. He's a fellow at the National Institute for deterrent studies. |
| 1:02.0 | I regard him as my go-to nuke guy. Peter, what we have here is Wang Yi and Lavrov in Moscow, |
| 1:10.4 | telling us that they've reached a consensus about Japan. |
| 1:14.4 | Meanwhile, back in Beijing, the apparatus is rattling nuclear sabers as if they're doing a send-up |
| 1:20.9 | of Vladimir Putin's rattling nuclear sabers every time he got stuck in Ukraine. |
| 1:26.9 | Is this all new to you, Peter? This nuke's rattling. |
| 1:32.2 | And with China doing it, I have to ask something about their policy. Does China have a no-first-use |
| 1:37.9 | policy? Good evening to you, Peter. Good evening, John. And good evening, Gordon. Yes, China has a policy. |
| 1:43.9 | I emphasize policy of no-first use, but a number of months ago when Japan said that they would come to the defense of Taiwan, China most pointedly said, that won't end well because we'll do to you what happened at the end of World War II, which was a bleak reference to nuking them, |
| 2:03.3 | which would be the first use of nuclear weapons. |
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