You know this how?
In REALITY, the US Navy, Army and Air Force are VERY concerned about China's military capabilities. They know a LOT more than some guy posting on the Internet.
One YUGE issue about using ballistic missiles as a nuclear power, even with conventional warheads, is how does those being targeted know that?
They don't.
We have built a world-wide and space network of sensors that let us know immediately when a ballistic missile is fired.
How do we know one or two such missiles are not going to be followed by a mass attack?
We don't.
So if we allow a nuclear power to launch an attack on us without releasing our own nuclear missiles our missiles will be destroyed in their own silos.
We have about 10-15 minutes to decide to launch ours or lose them. It is our strategy to fire on first launch.
OTHERWISE, we are encouraging an enemy to launch a few at a us, like we did when we put all our battleships and carriers in Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Imagine if we were able to see the Imperial Japanese Navy fleet of 6 carriers coming to the Northwest of Hawaii the first week of December 1941, and we let them know we saw them. They'd probably hold up. It had to be a surprise without any ability of the US to find them and fight back before they attacked.
That's what Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) is really all about.
Good post.
Then there’s the issue of battlefield tactical nukes.