There’s a rumor that they could build a working nuclear missile in a week six months.


But I bet they’re faster than that.

Great contribution.

Isn't that the lesson any small county should learn from North Korea?
They just need several submarines and associated missiles.

India has the H bomb. They can provide know how (if Israel or the US hasn't already.)

Holy fucking shit.

Agreed.
What just have to 7.5 million HK citizens sickens me.  I've been there and it is one very cool place. Given the belligerent behavior of China, I don't see myself ever going back.
We can't have another 23 million Taiwanese join them.

Actually Japan alluded to that about 20 years ago in an interview with one of their top scientists. While they have been anti-nuclear, in terms of weapons, and have no weapons of their own, their scientist admitted they have the technology and resources to put them together rather quickly. Only problem with that is if they are waiting for a first strike in order to respond, it will be too late.

I'm willing to bet China would eat a nuke just to take over Taiwan.

https://apnews.com/article/cabinets-recycling-yoshihide-suga-energy-policy-japan-66218c8a44a498a1535380066da466e9

Yep, I've seen that said by several of their scientist over the years and as I said, I wouldn't be surprised if they have a couple packages sitting there ready to be loaded.  Plausible deniability- no, we have no nuclear missiles, only missiles that could carry them and warheads that could be swapped in place of the conventional warhead.  With the installation of xiden, Japan would be foolish not to have the parts sitting near each other- and I don't think the Japanese are fools at all. Unlike most of America they, like every other country in the region, understands that the Chinese would love to steamroll them.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if South Korea has done the same while keeping their mouths shut about it; both definitely have the technical ability.  

I also expect countries in the region to increase the number of diesel electric boats in the region and the number that are deployed at any given time.  As China increases the size of their blue water navy in a push for projection, subs are probably the least expensive bang for the buck in deterrence (not a navy guy so I'm probably wrong).  Note that I have zero idea how good China's sub hunting tech is (even though they're constantly trying to steal or buy ours) although I'd bet all of the countries in the region along with us, the Soviets, probably India, maybe Australia, etc, have hydrophones and other listening gear littering the sea around China and the South China Sea area.

If what analysts are saying is true about China's increasingly aging population...

Then China has a time crunch.

Voodoo, what are they saying and got links for me to read?

That's plutonium that has been bred in commercial light water reactors.  It is ill-suited for weapons because of the every building quantities of Pu240 as the cycle operates.  While plutonium is relatively easy to extract and separate from the uranium oxides in spent fuel via chemical processes, trying to separate the isotopes of Pu239 (neutron fissile) from the Pu240 (neutron poison) is very difficult, much more so than the separation of U235 from natural uranium stocks.  While it may not seem like much, a 3 neutron weight difference is mechanically much easier to separate than something with a mere 1 neutron difference.  And then there is the additional activity of the plutonium, which makes the would-be process even more involved.

It's great for commercial reactor use, but not what one would want for weapons use.

Could you make effective dirty bombs from it?

I think ALL our traditional allies are getting worried, or should be.  I read n GEN Horner's book about Desert Storm that he told the Saudi Defense Minister to always remember that the last country that relied on the US for 100% of their defense had their capital city renamed Ho Chi Minh City right after we had a change of administrations.

One thing to note is that there are a number of ASEAN countries that don't like China. Especially after the WuFlu killed a number of their population.  It would be interesting to see if INDIA, the Thais, Vietnamese, Philippines, Japan, S. Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and the Aussies join together in a mutil-front "Oh No You Don't"

  China already has enormous bribery and influence operation in each of these countries to prevent a coalition from happening.

 In Australia they push the muh rascisms card,

  In South Korea they push anti Americanism, America is dragging Kora into this type stuff.

 In Singapore its the economy and that China will just keep letting Singapore do business if they shut the American navy out.

   Malaysia's and the Philippines      they just bribe different factions to fight each other.

  Other than us there is no one to pull them all together.

That’s what the word is from Beijing.