China's growing nuclear arsenal creates new global threat, may topple 70 year old power dynamic: Expert

A tripolar international landscape would occur once China has obtained enough nuclear weapons which may incentivize adversarial neighbors to become nuclear powers in self-defense.

Peter Aitken is a Fox News Digital reporter with a focus on national and global news. 

The international landscape has remained in a bipolar dynamic between the U.S. and Russia as the two dominant powers due to a policy of mutually assured destruction (MAD) thanks to their virtually unmatched nuclear arsenals. That power balance has remained in place for over 70 years. 

However, China has recently invested far more heavily in its nuclear arsenal and capabilities, developing a wide array of nuclear weapons in its land, sea and air-based delivery platforms that aim to bring it up to that same level as the U.S. and Russia. John Kirby in Nov. 2021 said the Pentagon’s "number one pacing challenge is the People’s Republic of China."