Newsmax
A lessening fear of the United States is a major reason China and Russia have been threatening to use nuclear weapons, one Chinese expert said. Author Gordon Chang, senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putin and China President Xi Jinping have been emboldened since President Joe Biden took office. In a Gatestone opinion column, Chang quoted Hudson Institute senior fellow Peter Huessy. “The bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan and the unwillingness to effectively support Ukraine since our 1994 guarantee and especially over the past year have led nuclear-armed enemies to ratchet up threats to the U.S. and its allies,” Huessy told Gatestone in March, Chang wrote. “They sense a growing American weakness.” Despite Putin and Xi’s nuclear threats, Western leaders have been determined not to believe them, Chang wrote. “In response to Russian threats, President Joe Biden on February 28 said the American people should not worry about nuclear war,” Chang wrote. “On the contrary, there is every reason to worry. “In line with Western thinking, presidents and prime ministers have almost always ignored nuclear threats, hoping not to dignify them. Unfortunately, this posture has only emboldened the threat-makers to make more threats. The later the international community confronts belligerent Russians, Chinese, and North Koreans, the more dangerous the confrontations will be. “The world, therefore, looks like it is fast approaching the worst moment in history.”
