Legislation introduced in Congress on July 13 to amend the defense bill called for a declaration that China is in violation of its commitments under the 1969 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has failed to pursue arms control of its own nuclear weapons, and has aggressively pushed proliferation of nuclear weapons to its law-breaking rogue state friends.

Finding China in violation of its nuclear NPT responsibilities may be the first step in revealing China’s true nuclear recklessness and curtailing further proliferation. Unfortunately, as Seung-Whan Choi of the University of Illinois at Chicago believes, the growing Chinese-induced nuclear threat may not be curtailed, and thus U.S. allies in the western Pacific, most notably Japan and the Republic of Korea, may have to go nuclear to defend themselves.

That is the very nightmare about which President Kennedy warned in 1962.

Peter Huessy is Senior Defense Fellow at the Hudson Institute and President of Geo-Strategic Analysis. These views are his own.

Image: Reuters.