U.S.’s Nuclear Employment Guidance Strategy
Recently we learned of a recently approved strategy named Nuclear Employment Guidance [1] that focuses on using nuclear weapons on China, as well as Russia and North Korea. The proposed strategy is supposed to prepare a hightened sense of security against a potential nuclear attack by the three countries of China, Russia, and North Korea.. China has been brought to the table of nuclear threats to the U.S.
One cannot criticize China for building up its military capability, including developing its nuclear arsenal so that if neessary, it can defend itself against potential enemies. If you look at the actions of China with respect to its military deployment, it has been extremely fair. Independent of the critical comments of the U.S., China is not using its military strength to bully other countries. It is really stretching the point, although completely consistent with what the U.S. governmwnt has been doing in the last 5-10 years, in adopting an extremely hostile attitude targeting and criticizing China, adopting all kinds of economic sanctions against China, and always demonizing China. The image publicized by the U.S. government and populated in the U.S. and world media on China is unwarranted and mostly fabricated. It is so contrary to the experience of the thousands of foreigners who have lived and worked in China for many years [Ref. 2]. As a matter of fact, one wonders why China is not doing more to counter the hostility and attitude toward China.
It is time for the U.S. government and the American people to reorient its attitude and image of China. The Chinese government and people have made great improvements in China, basically eliminating adverse poverty in China, and at the same time it has also helped many other countries to improve their standards of living, e.g, via the Belt and Road Initiative. It is time for the U.S. government to recognize the multipolar world, instead of focusing on the unipoloar world. It is time for the U.S. to remove all economic sanctions against China. Not only that these sanctions do not work, they do not hold back China, they also keep the U.S. from getting its fare share of economic benefits. These sanctions are counter protective,, they hurt China, they hurt the U.S., and they also hurt the rest of the world.
It is time not only to abandon the Nuclear Employment Guidance strategy putting China as the main nuclear threat. It is time for the U.S. and the world to focus their energy to work on the many important problems facing the world. It is time to see in what ways China can work collaborately with the U.S. to solve the many complex problems facing the world.
Let’s focus our attention on another important problem facing the U.S. This is related to two American astronauts who are currently stranded in the International Space Station (ISS).
Important U.S. Space Program
The U.S. has a very important space program called Starliner with two astronaults (Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams) who are temporarily stranded in space. The 15-foot-wide Boeing-made space capsule Starliner was launched, atop an Atlas V rocket, on June 6, 2024. But the spaceship has encountered some problems, including three helium leaks, including one leak that was known before flight, and two new ones after the spaceship was launched. Besides these leaks, the crew also had to troubleshoot failed control thrusters, though the crew was able to successfully dock the Starliner spaceship with the International Space Station (ISS). Being a Boeing-made spaceship, the Starliner was thought to provide a new way to get crews to and from the ISS. Witmore and Williams’ mission was supposed to last a mere eight days when they would test out aspects of Starliner and see how it operates with a human crew in space. However, due to complications experienced with Starliner, the two astronaults have to stay in the ISS much longer (Ref. 3).
With the technical problems facing the Starliner, NASA has been thinking of finding another method to bring the two stranded astronaults home to earth. So one method is to use the SpaceX, which is a private spaceflight company founded by Elon Musk. But SpaceX also has experienced failures and problems. A Falcon 9 rocket to launch SpaceX exploded on the launch pad in 2016, and in July a Falcon 9 rocket experienced a liquid oxygen leak and deployed its satellites in the wrong orbit. However, SpaceX also has more than 300 successful Falcon 9 flights to its credit.
NASA says that there is no rush to bring Wilmore and Williams home. The current plan is to launch another SpaceX to the ISS and bring Witmore and Williams home to earth. This is currrently scheduled for February 2025.
A Potential U.S.-China Collaborated Space Venture
Just for contingency planning, if the above plan to bring home Wilmore and Williams runs into more problems in the future, since China also has a space program (Tiangong space station) which is planning a national record 100 orbital launches in 2024. (Refs. 4 and 5). It would be a great collaborative effort for the U.S. and China to jointly launch a spaceship to the ISS to bring home the two U.S. astronauts Butch Whilmore and Suni Williams. Although China has many tasks for its space program (that is why it is planning about a 100 space launches in the next year or so), it should be a great effort for the U.S. and China to collaborrate on this highly valuable humanitarian effort. Who knows what could follow, and the icy relationship between the U.S. and China could thaw and give rise to more fruitful joint ventures to improve the world.
References
[1] David E. Sanger, “Biden Approved Secret Nuclear Strategy Refocusing on Chinese Threat,” the New York Times, 8/20/2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/20/us/politics/biden-nuclear-china-russia.html.
[2] See, video broadcasts by various foreigners who have lived and worked in China for many years, e.g., from American Cyrus Jannsen, Australian/British Jerry Grey, Columbian Fernando Munez Bernal, and many others. Their video broadcasts on China can easily be found in the web.
[3] See, e.g., Marcia Dunn, “Who are the two NASA astronauts stranded at the Intenational Space Station?”, https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/national-international/who-are-the-two-nasa-astronauts-stranded-at-the-international-space-station/3370766/?os=..&ref=app#:~:text=The%20two%20astronauts%20who%20will%20spend%20extra%20time,and%20when%20%E2%80%94%20they%20would%20return%20to%20Earth.
[4] Astronauts Stranded in Space: How They’ll Be Rescued in 2025″, CNET, Sept. 5, 2024: https://www.cnet.com/science/astronauts-stranded-in-space-how-theyll-be-rescued-in-2025/.
[5] Andrew Jones, Space News, “China’s 2024 space plans include 100 launches and moon sample return mission,” February 26, 2024: https://spacenews.com/chinas-2024-space-plans-include-100-launches-and-moon-sample-return-mission/.
