The United States’ National Security Strategy (NSS) and National Defense Strategy (NDS) recognize the return of great-power competition with Russia and China as the foremost threat to US national security. Pressingly, the National Defense Strategy Commission warns that great-power war is possible and the United States could lose.
One major concern is China’s growing strategic capabili-ties and the possibility that China could conduct a nuclear or nonnuclear strategic attack against the United States or its allies. Such an attack could inflict devastating damage, disrupt US warfighting capacity, sap US political will to con-tinue a conventional military campaign, and constrain US military freedom of action.
Despite China’s formal No First Use (NFU) policy, scholars have expressed concern that China could launch a nuclear attack on the United States in the event of a major war in the Indo-Pacific. In addition, the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) states that China might conduct limited theater nu-clear strikes. China may also use space and cyber capabil-ities to conduct “nonnuclear strategic attacks” against US space-based assets or US nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3). Indeed, China has oriented many of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities to target critical nodes employed by the US Joint Force, including space-based assets.
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