{"id":1693168,"date":"2022-10-14T06:30:10","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T10:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1693168"},"modified":"2022-10-16T09:52:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-16T13:52:14","slug":"the-worlds-other-nuclear-flashpoint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-worlds-other-nuclear-flashpoint\/","title":{"rendered":"The World\u2019s Other Nuclear Flashpoint"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">10<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-worlds-other-nuclear-flashpoint%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1693168&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p> The world\u2019s other nuclear flashpoint <\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Vladimir Putin\u2019s recent implicit threat to employ nuclear weapons if the U.S. and its NATO allies continue to arm Ukraine \u2014 \u201cThis is not a bluff,\u201d he\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.kremlin.ru\/events\/president\/news\/69390\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">insisted<\/a>\u00a0on September 21st \u2014 the perils in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict once again hit the headlines. And it\u2019s entirely possible, as ever more powerful U.S. weapons\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2022\/09\/28\/world\/russia-ukraine-war-news#the-latest-us-military-package-for-ukraine-calls-for-1-1-billion-in-long-term-aid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pour into<\/a>\u00a0Ukraine and Russian forces suffer yet\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/10\/01\/world\/europe\/lyman-ukraine-russia.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more defeats<\/a>, that the Russian president might indeed believe that the season for threats is ending and only the detonation of a nuclear weapon will convince the Western powers to back off. If so, the war in Ukraine could prove historic in the worst sense imaginable \u2014 the first conflict since World War II to lead to nuclear devastation.<\/p>\n<p>But hold on! As it happens, Ukraine isn\u2019t the only place on the planet where a nuclear conflagration could erupt in the near future. Sad to say, around the island of Taiwan \u2014 where U.S. and Chinese forces are engaging in ever more provocative military maneuvers \u2014 there is also an increasing risk that such moves by both sides could lead to nuclear escalation.<\/p>\n<p id=\"more\">While neither American nor Chinese officials have explicitly threatened to use such weaponry, both sides have highlighted possible extreme outcomes there. When Joe Biden last spoke with Xi Jinping by telephone on July 29th, the Chinese president warned him against allowing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to visit the island (which she nonetheless did, four days later) or offering any further encouragement to \u201cTaiwan independence forces\u201d there. \u201cThose who play with fire will perish by it,\u201d he\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fmprc.gov.cn\/eng\/zxxx_662805\/202207\/t20220729_10729593.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">assured<\/a>\u00a0the American president, an ambiguous warning to be sure, but one that nevertheless left open the possible use of nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n<p>As if to underscore that point, on September 4th, the day after Pelosi met with senior Taiwanese officials in Taipei, China fired 11 Dongfeng-15 (DF-15) ballistic missiles into the waters around that island. Many Western observers\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/08\/03\/world\/asia\/taiwan-china-military-exercises.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">believe<\/a>\u00a0that the barrage was meant as a demonstration of Beijing\u2019s ability to attack any U.S. naval vessels that might come to Taiwan\u2019s aid in the event of a Chinese blockade or invasion of the island. And the DF-15, with a range of 600 miles, is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/missilethreat.csis.org\/missile\/df-15-css-6\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">believed capable<\/a>\u00a0of delivering not only a conventional payload, but also a nuclear one.<\/p>\n<p>In the days that followed, China also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.saneuschinapolicy.org\/provocative-maneuvers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sent<\/a>\u00a0nuclear-capable H-6 heavy bombers across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, a previously respected informal boundary between China and that island. Worse yet, state-owned media displayed images of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/missilethreat.csis.org\/missile\/df-17\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dongfeng-17<\/a>\u00a0(DF-17) hypersonic ballistic missiles, also believed capable of carrying nuclear weapons, being\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/defence-blog.com\/china-deploys-hypersonic-weapon-near-taiwan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">moved into positions<\/a>\u00a0off Taiwan.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Washington has not overtly deployed nuclear-capable weaponry in such a brazen fashion near Chinese territory, but it certainly has sent aircraft carriers and guided-missile warships into the area, signaling its ability to launch attacks on the mainland should a war break out. While Pelosi was in Taiwan, for example, the Navy\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2022\/08\/04\/11-chinese-ballistic-missiles-fired-near-taiwan-u-s-embarks-uss-america-from-japan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">deployed<\/a>\u00a0the carrier USS\u00a0<em>Ronald Reagan\u00a0<\/em>with its flotilla of escort vessels in nearby waters. Military officials in both countries are all too aware that should such ships ever<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The world\u2019s other nuclear flashpoint Thanks to Vladimir Putin\u2019s recent implicit threat to employ nuclear weapons if the U.S. and its NATO allies continue to arm Ukraine \u2014 \u201cThis is not a bluff,\u201d he\u00a0insisted\u00a0on September 21st \u2014 the perils in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict once again hit the headlines. And it\u2019s entirely possible, as ever more &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1897499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1693168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1693168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1693168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1693168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1693168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}