U.S. Fears Russia Might Put a Nuclear Weapon in Space

When Russia conducted a series of secret military satellite launches around the time of its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, American intelligence officials began delving into the mystery of what, exactly, the Russians were doing. Later, spy agencies discovered Russia was working on a new kind of space-based weapon that could threaten the thousands of satellites that keep the world connected. In recent weeks, a new warning has circulated from America’s spy agencies: Another launch may be in the works, and the question is whether Russia plans to use…

Fear and Ambition Propel Xi’s Nuclear Acceleration

Nineteen days after taking power as China’s leader, Xi Jinping convened the generals overseeing the country’s nuclear missiles and issued a blunt demand. China had to be ready for possible confrontation with a formidable adversary, he said, signaling that he wanted a more potent nuclear capability to counter the threat. Their force, he told the generals, was a “pillar of our status as a great power.” They must, Mr. Xi said, advance “strategic plans for responding under the most complicated and difficult conditions to military intervention by a powerful enemy,”…

China Quietly Rebuilds Secretive Base for Nuclear Tests

In the remote desert where China detonated its first atom bomb nearly 60 years ago, a drilling rig recently bored a deep vertical shaft that is estimated to plunge down at least a third of a mile. It is the strongest evidence yet that Beijing is weighing whether to test a new generation of nuclear arms that could increase the lethality of its rapidly expanding missile force. A large drill rig hidden in the eastern hills of the Lop Nur site. The New York Times; satellite image by Maxar For…

A.I. Killer Drones Are Becoming Reality. Nations Disagree on Limits.

It seems like something out of science fiction: swarms of killer robots that hunt down targets on their own and are capable of flying in for the kill without any human signing off. But it is approaching reality as the United States, China and a handful of other nations make rapid progress in developing and deploying new technology that has the potential to reshape the nature of warfare by turning life and death decisions over to autonomous drones equipped with artificial intelligence programs. That prospect is so worrying to many…

China’s Military is Making Risky Moves and Adding Nuclear Warheads, U.S. Says

Risky Maneuvers Since the fall of 2021, the Pentagon report says, the United States has recorded more than 180 intercepts of U.S. aircraft by Chinese military forces in the region. Beijing has long bristled at the U.S. military aircraft and ships that operate in international skies and seas near China. China has been increasingly assertive in the region, from building military infrastructure in the disputed South China Sea to buzzing planes flown by the United States, Canada and other Western allies. Such moves risk a midair crash and a wider…

Putin and Kim’s Embrace May Place Xi in a Bind

To challenge the power of his chief rival, the United States, China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has linked arms with two anti-Western states, declaring a “no limits” partnership with Russia and pledging “unswerving” support for North Korea. But the specter of a budding bromance between President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, after their meeting this week in eastern Russia, may not be as welcome a development for Mr. Xi as it might initially seem. Closer ties between Pyongyang and Moscow could result in…

U.S. Warns China on Nuclear Rivalry and Vows to Keep Patrolling Region

The United States pressed Beijing on two fronts this weekend, warning both of the near-term risks of military mishaps and of the looming dangers of a nuclear arms rivalry, prompting a vehement accusation from a Chinese general that Washington was stoking confrontation. In speeches from President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, on Friday, and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Saturday in Singapore, the Biden administration sought to draw China toward talks on the rising military perils. Mr. Austin also indicated that the United States would keep operating…

China Is on Track to Become Nuclear Superpower, Ushering in New Age

WASHINGTON — On the Chinese coast, just 135 miles from Taiwan, Beijing is preparing to start a new reactor the Pentagon sees as delivering fuel for a vast expansion of China’s nuclear arsenal, potentially making it an atomic peer of the United States and Russia. The reactor, known as a fast breeder, excels at making plutonium, a top fuel of atom bombs. The nuclear material for the reactor is being supplied by Russia, whose Rosatom nuclear giant has in the past few months completed the delivery of 25 tons of…

Pentagon’s Strategy Says China and Russia Pose More Dangerous Challenges

WASHINGTON — Eight months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and as China pushes to increase its nuclear, space and cyberforces, the Pentagon outlined a sweeping new strategy on Thursday that called for more robust deterrence at an increasingly tense moment in international security. The document, the National Defense Strategy, which also includes reviews of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and missile defenses, has been circulating for months in classified form on Capitol Hill. The last national defense strategy, published in 2018 by the Trump administration, was the first since the end…

US Penalizes Chinese Companies for Aiding Iran’s Oil Exports

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced on Thursday that it would impose sanctions on two Chinese companies that transport and store Iranian oil, a shift to a tougher stance on Tehran amid signs that efforts to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have failed. In a statement, the State Department said the United States was targeting Zhonggu Storage and Transportation Co. Ltd., which it said operates a commercial crude oil storage facility for Iranian petroleum, and WS Shipping Co. Ltd., which it said manages a vessel that has transported Iranian…