War Rhetoric Continues Between China And The U.S.

China warns it will not 'sit idly by' while the US moves to put new strike missiles on its 'doorstep'

 Ryan Pickrell,Business Insider

• Mark Esper, the new US secretary of defense, told reporters over the weekend that he is interested in fielding intermediate-range missiles in Asia "sooner rather than later."
• Fielding this capability in the Pacific, which the US is looking at in the wake of the INF Treaty's collapse, would allow the US to confront China in new ways.
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• "We want China's leadership to wake up every morning and think this is not a good day to pick a fight with the United States or its allies," a missile defense expert told INSIDER, commenting on Esper's remarks.
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• China warned Monday that it "will not just sit idly by and watch our interests being compromised," nor will it allow another country to "stir up troubles at our doorstep."
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Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Saturday that he wants to put ground-based intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the Pacific to confront regional threats, a move that is antagonizing rivals China and Russia.

"We would like to deploy the capability sooner rather than later," he said Saturday, just one day after the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the US and Russia officially expired. "I would prefer months. I just don't have the latest state of play on timelines."

He did not identify where the missiles would be located in Asia, suggesting that the US would develop the weapons and then sort out placement later. He has said it could be "years" before these weapons are fielded in the region.

The 1987 INF Treaty prohibited the development and deployment of conventional and nuclear ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, but the treaty has ended, giving the US new options as it confronts China's growing might in the Asia-Pacific region.

Following the end of the treaty, Esper said in a statement Friday that the "Department of Defense will fully pursue the development of these ground-launched conventional missiles," calling these moves a "prudent response to Russia's actions." But, the Defense Department is also clearly looking at China. "Eighty percent plus of their [missile] inventory is intermediate-range systems," Esper told reporters Saturday. It "shouldn't surprise [China] that we would want to have a like capability."

In his previous role as the secretary of the Army, Esper made long-range precision fires a top priority, regularly arguing that the US needs long-range, stand-off weaponry if it is to maintain its competitive advantage in a time of renewed great power competition.