Xi military parade to showcase China missiles spooking US

Bloomberg

In Beijing, President Xi Jinping’s grand military parade through the capital will be cheered as a display of national pride after 70 years of Communist Party rule. In Washington, many will see a growing threat to American dominance in the Western Pacific.
Alongside the tanks, troop carriers and columns of goose-stepping soldiers, the 80-minute procession past Tiananmen Square on Tuesday is expected to showcase a set of missiles that have prompted the US in recent years to try and put more firepower in East Asia. China has poured money into building what former Pacific Commander Harry Harris called “the largest and most diverse missile force in the world.”
The parade — Xi’s second such event in four years — will feature the fruits of labour, according to analysis of photos of equipment staged in advance of the holiday. One intercontinental ballistic missile — the Dongfeng-41, one of the world’s longest range rockets — will be publicly displayed for the first time, researchers Antoine Bondaz and Stéphane Delory of the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris wrote.
“In terms of pure political communication, the missiles are going to be what everyone is going to talk about, because it’s a powerful demonstration of force and strength from the Chinese,” Bondaz said.
Among the most immediate concerns of the US and its Asian allies is the People’s Liberation Army’s arsenal of shorter-range, non-nuclear missiles. Over the past 15 years, China has doubled its supply of launchers and built an array of weapons that have extended the reach of its conventional warheads to cover most
of US’s Western Pacific bases.
Such mid-range, land-based missiles, which the US was banned from possessing from under its Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, were among the reasons why some supported the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Cold War-era pact this year. The PLA’s dedicated Rocket Force has tested advanced “hypersonic” missiles that are almost impossible to intercept, according to a Japanese defense white paper.
“The medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles that the Chinese have developed, and which will be on display on the October 01, are a critical component” of Beijing’s strategy, said Sam Roggeveen, director of the Sydney-based Lowy Institute’s international security programme.
US officials have estimated that around 95 percent of China’s arsenal would’ve run afoul of the INF treaty, which the US has also accused Moscow of violating. The PLA’s missiles could allow China to “quickly use limited force to achieve a fait accompli victory” before the US could respond, according to one recent report from the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre.
While pulling out of the treaty lets the US reintroduce its own missiles, the world’s most powerful military is playing catch-up with China. The Pentagon conducted its first flight test of a land-based cruise missile last month and new Defense Secretary Mark Esper said during his first visit to the region that he was looking for sites in Asia to base such weapons.
Esper’s suggestion exposed the hurdles facing any Washington-led effort to counter China’s threat. Australian PM Scott Morrison ruled out hosting US missiles and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has run into stiff opposition against his efforts to deploy an American missile-defense system, let alone offensive rockets.