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US uses China’s nuclear threat to spend more on military: Analyst

Thursday, 09 April 2015 5:24 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 09 April 2015 5:23 AM ]

The United States is creating a false sense of fear about China’s nuclear weapons to justify investing more on the country’s military.

The United States is creating a false sense of fear about China’s nuclear weapons to justify investing more on the country’s military and reduce spending on social welfare programs, an anti-war activist in Maine says.

“China actually has very few nuclear weapons which they really use as a deterrent; it’s not an offensive system,” said Bruce Gagnon, the coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.

However, Washington’s deployment of its missile systems to the Asia-Pacific region, forced China to move its vulnerable underground nuclear missiles to its stealthiest submarines to make them survivable, Gagnon said.

“The US uses that to claim that China is being more aggressive and might actually attack the United States,” he told Press TV on Wednesday.

“So this builds fear back here at home in the United States which then justifies more money for the Pentagon and… we have to cut social programs, food stamps, ‘meals on wheels’ for the elderly, education, healthcare, fixing our roads and bridges, all these kinds of programs are all being attacked and cut today,” he noted.

A top US military commander said this week that he is concerned about China’s ballistic missile submarines capable of attacking the United States with nuclear weapons.

Commander of the US Northern Command Admiral William Gortney said on Tuesday that any time a country has nuclear weapons and delivery systems that can reach the US homeland, “it’s a concern of mine.”

“Just because China has nuclear capability though, does not mean that they intend to use it; China has really never shown an aggressive nature in history by attacking other countries,” Gagnon argued.

“It’s really the United States that’s the aggressor in the region, but they blame any moves that China makes on Beijing being provocative, when in fact the provocative nation is the United States,” he said.

AHT/AGB

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