(NewsNation) — The US and China have agreed that nuclear war should be ruled out, but can China’s promises be believed?
President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit and one of the topics of discussion was the possible use of nuclear weapons.
Brent Sadler, senior fellow for naval warfare and advanced technology at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, said China’s way of thinking is similar to Russiawith the threat that nuclear weapons will be used to try to change the results in their favor.
Sadler said the US is in a strong position to respond, but there are gaps in the US defense.
“There is a chink in our armor,” Sadler said. “We do not have adequate tactical nuclear responses.”
The United States reduced the number of tactical nuclear weapons in its arsenal after the Cold War. That gives Russia and China several more options to escalate the use of nuclear weapons that the United States does not have.
“The only option we have is to go big and that very quickly falls apart into massive nuclear exchanges and that is something the United States will suffer a lot of damage and a lot of losses before making that decision,” Sadler said.
Watch the full interview in the player above.