Next month, President Trump will visit Beijing amid a time of fear and uncertainty. As the two nations battle for dominance on the global stage, recent reports show that China has been bolstering its nuclear arsenal.

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From CNN:

The expansion of the sites in Sichuan province, observed in satellite imagery and a review of dozens of Chinese government documents, supports recent claims by the administration of US President Donald Trump that Beijing has been conducting its most significant nuclear weapon modernization campaign in decades.

Trump is set to visit Beijing on a landmark trip next month where he is expected to try to begin a dialogue about a deal to curb Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s nuclear ambitions. Earlier this year, the latest arms reduction agreement between Russia and the United States – known as New START – expired, with Trump wanting to strike a new and improved deal with Moscow that would also include China.

But the dramatic changes seen at sites in Sichuan suggest that the nuclear weapons development of China’s military, known as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), shows little sign of abating.

The CNN article describes a massive 36,000 square foot facility “enclosed by a concrete and steel structure with radiation monitors and blast doors,” with a “network of pipes snaking out of the facility and into a building with a tall ventilation stack.” These features, according to CNN, indicate that the facility was designed to hour uranium, plutonium, and other “highly radioactive materials.”

This facility, known as 906, is just one of many. CNN noted that newly refurbished roads link 906 to at least 3other nearby nuclear weapons bases.

Over the past few years, China has been working tirelessly to bolster its nuclear arsenal, overtaking France’s arsenal in 2020. CNN notes that China currently holds just over 600 nuclear warheads. While this is far less than America, it is worth noting that Beijing is, according to the Pentagon, the “fastest producer of nuclear weapons in the world.”

It’s not all bad news, however. In a separate article, a China expert lays out how the President Trump is using the conflict in the Middle East and the “Trump doctrine” to counter “China’s plan for world domination.”

From CBN:

China expert Gordon Chang, author of Plan Red: China’s Project to Destroy America, says while oil gets most of the attention, he believes the broader implications are much larger. Chang sees a more sinister force between the two countries because China helped Iran build key parts of its nuclear program by working through Pakistan’s “father of the nuclear bomb.”

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The Trump administration says Iran’s refusal to stop its nuclear ambitions by enriching uranium and building more ballistic missiles led to the current conflict. Chang says that defiance is due to Iran’s alliance with China to keep conflict alive against the U.S. and Israel, using proxies throughout the Middle East.

“China is trying to convince the world it is a responsible partner on nonproliferation. In reality, China has been the world’s leading proliferator of nuclear weapons technology, much of it to Iran. And it wasn’t just centrifuges. It was also Chinese warhead designs. This is a comprehensive program by the Chinese regime to use the spread of that technology to advance its own goals.”

President Trump is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in May. According to Chang, the President should confront China head-on and tell Jinping that the U.S. “will defend Taiwan, and we will defend ourselves, our friends, and our allies.”

At IFA, we’re no strangers to praying about China. Let’s pray that this nation wouldn’t be able to harm us, and that God would give wisdom to our leaders as they work to counter it!

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(Excerpts from CNN and CBN. Photo Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)