Maybe if we claimed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) fireworks and 100th anniversary celebrations were contributing to global warming (climate change), the Biden administration might see that the CCP poses a greater danger to global peace and security more so now than at any point in its history. This week, satellite images uncovered that China is constructing what appear to be over 100 new silos to house intercontinental ballistic missiles, which could deliver nuclear warheads to anywhere on the globe. According to China expert Gordon Chang, “there are 119 circular holes in Gansu province” and 26 “elsewhere in China,” for a total of 145. Unless the silos are a diversion, they represent a major expansion of the CCP’s nuclear capabilities, upgrading its land-based deterrent from mobile launchers to stationary sites. “These silos are going to be the most critical part of China’s deterrence or China’s offensive capability,” said Chang.

China’s nuclear upgrades come after years of globally aggressive foreign policy, including a massive military buildup, repeated violations of its neighbors’ airspace and territorial waters, and predatory lending practices to gain control of critical infrastructure in countries that control key resources. Last May, China killed 20 Indian soldiers in a gun-free border skirmish. The CCP still claims sovereignty over Taiwan, even though the regime has never ruled the island nation in its 100-year history, and repeatedly attempts to intimidate the country. Yet, despite his own regime’s constant bullying, in a speech this week Xi Jinping declared, “we will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress or subjugate us.”

Xi also decried “sanctimonious preaching from those who feel they have the right to lecture us.” This manufactured outrage comes from the same man who has authorized the systematic campaign to destroy the Uyghur Muslim minority, imprisoning, sterilizing, and brainwashing literally millions of Uyghurs, who are subjected to harsh conditions and forced to work without pay (slavery, by definition) in modern-day concentration camps.

While the world tries to hold China accountable for genocide against its own ethnic and religious minorities, it must also hold China accountable for the COVID-19 pandemic, which “Xi Jinping, took steps to deliberately spread… beyond China’s borders,” said Chang. On Tuesday, he said a panel of experts gathered by House Republicans unanimously testified that “all the evidence pointed to the lab in Wuhan.” The two most compelling reasons are that the coronavirus contains genetic sequences that don’t appear in nature, and that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell sick in November 2019. Chang said that CCP President Xi “feels he got away with killing 3.9 million people outside of China, which means there’ll be no inhibitions of spreading the next disease” if we can’t hold him accountable.

I’m far more concerned about the biological threat China poses than the nuclear threat. Nukes can be seen, countered, and deterred, but not a bioweapon. “A lot of material from China’s military itself talks about how World War Three will primarily be fought with biological weapons,” said Chang. He said China is even “working on pathogens that will attack specific ethnic genetic groups,” so that the next pathogen “could leave the Chinese immune but sicken and kill everybody else.” At the very least, the U.S. should immediately stop funding China’s bioweapons research program.

The U.S. has ignored China for too long, said Chang, and “now, the Pentagon is scrambling.” On its 100th anniversary, the CCP presents a graver nuclear and biological threat than ever before. Whether U.S. officials choose to ignore it or not, China is engaged in an arms race, in a bid to replace America as the world superpower for the next century. The future hangs in the balance.

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.