From the "Well, Duh" files:
China is opposed to the United States' withdrawal from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty while refusing to join the arms accord to avoid limiting its large missile forces, according to a congressional report.
In contrast to the ban on U.S. and Russian intermediate-range missiles, "remaining outside the pact has allowed China to rapidly expand its missile arsenal as part of a military strategy designed to counter U.S. and allied military power in Asia," states a staff report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission made public this week.
"Implicit in this position is a recognition that limits on the United States and Russia that do not constrain China advantage Beijing," the report says.
The INF treaty with Russia limiting intermediate-range ground-based missiles was concluded when China was aligned with America to block the USSR.
Now China is a threat to America and our allies, and has a lot of intermediate-range missiles that we can't match because of the INF treaty intended to block Russia (which is ignoring the treaty while denying it is doing so and wrongly counter-claiming America is in violation of the treaty) and not to block China.
Yes, we have sea-based missiles. And we could use air-launched missiles. But with China's rapidly expanding and more modern navy, air force, and air defenses, our ships and planes are more vulnerable to Chinese attack. And the American ships need to replace land-attack missiles with anti-ship and anti-aircraft/missile missiles to carry out a sea control mission. So yeah, the treaty is a problem that no longer reflects the current situation.
We need a new INF treaty with Russia that allows us to counter China; or we need China in an expanded deal to limit their missiles, too. The worst thing is to stay in an agreement that Russia violates and which China was never part of. That's obvious, isn't it?
UPDATE: Unclear on the concept:
Russia will exit the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in six months as part of a symmetrical response to the United States' pullout, the Interfax news agency cited Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Wednesday.
Russia ended their participation in the treaty quite some time ago. Say, perhaps that was "hybrid" treaty compliance?
