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China and Russia issued a joint statement this Wednesday (20) classifying the Golden Dome project, the $175 billion missile shield proposed by Trump, as an obvious threat to world strategic stability. According to G1, the statement was released after Putin was received by Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, and also criticizes the United States for allowing the expiration of the New START nuclear treaty without presenting a substitute.
China and Russia reacted jointly to the most ambitious US military defense project since the Cold War. In a statement issued this Wednesday (20), after the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in Beijing, the two countries classified the Golden Dome, Trump’s missile shield, the Golden Dome as a threat that compromises the foundations of global strategic stability. The document states that the system aims to “destroy all types of missiles, including those of equivalent adversaries, at all stages of flight and before they are launched,” and considers that this capability destabilizes the military balance between the major powers.
The statement from China and Russia was released on the same day that Putin and Xi signed 40 bilateral agreements in the Great Hall of the People, with an honor guard, gun salute, and children waving flags of both countries. The joint statement also laments what it called the “irresponsible policy” of the United States for allowing the expiration of the New START, a nuclear treaty signed in 2010 between Moscow and Washington to limit atomic arsenals. China and Russia warned that attempts to carry out “preemptive strikes to decapitate and disarm the enemy” are highly destabilizing.
What is the Golden Dome and how it would work
The Golden Dome is a missile defense system designed to protect the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missile attacks from any point on the planet. The project is valued at 175 billion dollars, about 1 trillion reais, and Trump wants to complete it by the end of his term in 2029. The name is a reference to Israel’s Iron Dome, a system that intercepts short-range rockets, but on an incomparably larger scale.
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The system envisions four layers of defense: one space-based and three on land. The orbital layer will use advanced satellite networks to detect, track, and potentially destroy threats directly from orbit. The three ground layers will consist of missile interceptors, state-of-the-art radar arrays, and potentially laser weapons. The Pentagon plans to install 11 short-range batteries in the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii, as well as a new base in the Midwest to house NGI interceptors.
Why China and Russia consider the project a threat
The central concern of China and Russia is not with the defense itself, but with what it implies offensively. A shield capable of neutralizing any enemy missile before launch eliminates the logic of mutually assured destruction — the principle that maintained nuclear peace during the Cold War. If the United States manages to become invulnerable to retaliation, the theory is that they could launch a first strike without fearing consequences, destroying any remaining strategic stability.
The joint statement uses specific language to describe this concern: it speaks of “preemptive or anticipatory strikes to decapitate and disarm the enemy” as highly destabilizing actions. The spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mao Ning, had already stated that the project has a “strong offensive nature” and violates the Outer Space Treaty. China and Russia argue that the Golden Dome turns space into a war zone and encourages an orbital arms race — something both say they want to avoid.
Greenland and the missing piece on the board
One of the most controversial elements of the project is the strategic importance Trump attributed to Greenland. The American president declared that the autonomous territory of Denmark is “vital” for the construction of the Golden Dome. The reason is geographical: Greenland is located on the shortest route between Russia and the United States for an intercontinental ballistic missile, making it the ideal point to install radars and boost-phase interceptors.
The island is also located in the so-called GIUK gap, a naval corridor between Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom that links the Arctic Ocean to the Atlantic. With ice melting opening new navigation routes, control of this corridor has gained additional strategic importance. The United States already maintains a military base in Greenland, but with a reduced force: from 10,000 military personnel during the Cold War, fewer than 200 remain. Besides the military implications, the island has vast reserves of critical minerals and rare earths — essential resources for the defense industry and the energy transition.
The end of New START and the nuclear vacuum
The statement from China and Russia also criticizes the United States for the expiration of the New START Treaty in early 2026. The agreement, signed in 2010, limited the strategic nuclear arsenals of Washington and Moscow to 1,550 operational warheads each and included mutual inspection mechanisms that ensured transparency.
With the end of the treaty and without a negotiated replacement, for the first time since 1972, there is no nuclear arms control agreement in effect between the two largest atomic powers in the world. China and Russia classified the American stance as “irresponsible” and linked the regulatory vacuum to the Golden Dome: without limits for offensive arsenals and with a defensive shield under construction, the United States would be seeking unilateral nuclear supremacy and undermining the strategic stability that sustained decades of peace between nuclear powers. Washington rejects this interpretation and argues that the system is purely defensive.
What the joint statement reveals about the China-Russia alliance
The statement against the Golden Dome is part of a broader declaration on a “multipolar world and a new type of international relations,” issued after the meeting between Putin and Xi. China and Russia used the Golden Dome as a concrete example of what they consider an American trend of seeking absolute military dominance to the detriment of balance among powers.
The document comes at a time of unprecedented diplomatic and economic alignment between the two countries. Putin described the relationship as being at an “unprecedented level,” and the visit to Beijing resulted in advances in the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, agreements for payment in ruble and yuan, and declarations of technological cooperation. For analysts, the joint criticism of the Golden Dome is not just rhetoric — it is the materialization of a common front that China and Russia are building to counterbalance American military power. Washington’s missile defense shield is treated by both as the greatest threat to strategic stability in the 21st century.
Do you think the Golden Dome will really protect the US or will it provoke a new arms race? What concerns you more: the missile defense shield, the end of the New START, or the increasingly strong alliance between China and Russia? Tell us in the comments.
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