Discussion of the US-Russia Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty — aka New START — has so far pretty much skipped one very important consideration: China.
In the run-up to last week’s Senate committee vote to send the treaty to the floor for ratification this fall, senators quite rightly debated whether New START overly restrains US missile-defense options, has weak verification procedures, cuts too many US missiles or warheads or might affect nuclear North Korea and near-nuclear Iran.