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CHAPTER 22 The Chinese Puzzle The first [false assumption] is that China is an enemy of the United States. It’s not. —EDWARD SNOWDEN, Hong Kong, 2013 O N AUGUST 11, 2014, in the Atlantic Ocean, an event took place of enormous concern to U.S. intelligence. A Chinese Jin-class submarine launched an intercontinental ballistic missile. The missile released twelve independently targeted reentry vehicles, each simu- lating a nuclear warhead. Some forty-four hundred miles away, in China’s test range in the Xinjiang desert, each of the twelve simu- lated nuclear warheads hit its target within a twelve-inch radius. The test firing, which was closely monitored by the NSA, was a strategic game changer. It meant that a single Jin-class submarine, which carried twelve such missiles and 144 nuclear warheads, could destroy every city of strategic importance in the United States. U.S. intelligence further reported that China would soon use stealth technology to make it more difficult to detect newer submarines and give “China its first credible sea-based nuclear deterrent” against an American attack. By 2015, as its test in the Atlantic had foreshadowed, China had armed its land-based as well as sea-based missiles with multiple | | Epst_9780451494566_2p_all_r.indd 234 ® 9/3016 8:13AM | | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019722