https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/09/the-real-meaning-of-chinas-nuclear-parade/
Beijing’s recent display of military prowess is part of a broader effort to sow instability. The U.S. must push back.
Chinese General-Secretary Xi Jinping has wanted desperately to display his growing nuclear power for all the world to see. Last week, the Chinese military delivered. It is vital that America’s leaders understand just what this means for the security of the West.
Last Wednesday, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) paraded a host of weapons systems through the streets of Beijing. The assembled audience included not only China’s applauding masses, but also a who’s who of America’s enemies, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian. These tyrants hobnobbed as a dizzying array of Chinese military hardware passed by. Putin, in particular, could be seen mixing it up with Xi as the Chinese leader gestured toward a seemingly endless stream of troops, tanks, and aircraft. Afterwards, Xi even led Putin through the parade grounds as the two dictators discussed harvesting organs to extend their reigns and achieve immortality.
Tanks, aircraft and organs aside, however, the most concerning aspect of this military display was the next-generation nuclear missiles that rolled past Xi’s autocratic fraternity. The PLA debuted the land-based DF-61 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a missile so large that it is carried on and launched from a 16-wheeled truck. Joining the DF-61 for its maiden stroll through Beijing was the DF-5C, another gigantic land-based missile that can reportedly deliver either several kiloton warheads or one multi-megaton warhead anywhere on earth. The DF-31BJ, designed for China’s hundreds of newly built land-based silos, also appeared for the first time. The PLA even showcased a first-of-its-kind air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM), as well as a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) that can strike the continental United States from home waters.
These missiles in themselves will come as no great shock to informed observers, however. Chinese authorities have either hinted at or written openly about them for several years now. The PLA Air Force, for instance, flight-tested an ALBM in 2024. And American analysts have been anticipating China’s next-generation missiles, in one form or another, for some time.
The true significance of Xi’s parade thus lies less in shock value than in what it says about China’s nuclear aspirations — and about America’s faltering modernization program. China is rapidly expanding its nuclear weapons and diversifying the means of delivering them, even as America struggles merely to replace its aging missiles and bombers. The U.S. Department of Defense estimates that by 2035, China will have matched or blown past the roughly 1,550 warheads America deploys. Moreover, China has already matched or surpassed America’s 400 ICBMs and enjoys a sizable advantage in medium-range missiles that can hold hostage America’s allies in the western Pacific.
These adverse trends — displayed so prominently in Xi’s parade — spring from the clashing geopolitical aspirations of China and America. For years, Washington attempted in vain to stave off an aggressive Chinese nuclear buildup by engaging Beijing in arms-control negotiations. Washington even enthusiastically invited Beijing into its liberalized global order, hoping that China would become a “responsible stakeholder” and disavow territorial claims against Taiwan and its neighbors. Stability has long been Washington’s guiding principle with Beijing. U.S. officials deliberately constrained their nuclear capability to foster reciprocity.
