China has more than enough nukes to end the US in any meaningful way. A study from the 1950s Britain concluded that hitting 5-10 coastal cities -- which also have most of the population and most of the shipping -- would effectively end the economy and annihilate the population. Most of China's population would be vaporized in retaliation; most of the US population would just starve to death.
There has been a lot of work in alternative massive destruction techniques.
Detonate a few nukes off the coast and cause a tsunami -- how's missile defense going to stop that? Satellite weapons -- "rods from god" -- are probably a thing to some degree. Or as mentioned, balloons.
And who needs nukes when $50 worth of rail road derailing tools can cause a multi-million dollar catastrophe that will poison an entire water table?
There has been a lot of work in alternative massive destruction techniques.
Detonate a few nukes off the coast and cause a tsunami -- how's missile defense going to stop that? Satellite weapons -- "rods from god" -- are probably a thing to some degree. Or as mentioned, balloons.
And who needs nukes when $50 worth of rail road derailing tools can cause a multi-million dollar catastrophe that will poison an entire water table?