The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted last week to send the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) to the Senate floor. The debate so far has centered on New START’s missile defense limitations capabilities and its useless verification measures. But as Heritage analyst Peter Brookes writes in today’s New York Post, one big consideration has been ignored so far: China. Brookes writes:

While the exact shape of China’s grand ambitions may not be clear, there’s little question they exist. Few would dispute that Beijing wouldn’t mind taking the head seat at the table of global powers, now occupied by Washington.

Indeed, if any country can undertake a so-called “rush to [nuclear] parity” with the United States and Russia, it’s China, especially considering its aspirations, wealth and willingness to lavish largesse on its armed forces.

Basically, Beijing could become a nuclear peer competitor of Washington and Moscow in the not too distant future, in light of the expected arms cuts under New START.

You can read Brookes’ full op-ed here.
Heritage’s New START research is here.