One little Royal Navy frigate in Taiwan Strait and Beijing thinks we are declaring war!

The worst thing about arms races, particularly nuclear arms races, is that the nations involved have convinced themselves that their worst enemy or potential worst enemy is plotting to annihilate them when actually this is total nonsense. Thus, the Soviet Union believed that the US-led Nato alliance was formed to destroy "the motherland" and the US was convinced that the Kremlin had its plans all ready to send tens of thousands of tanks across the border into Germany and then probably use tactical nuclear weapons to clean up. So sure was Moscow that the US was building bigger and better and longer-range nuclear missiles to turn the Soviet Union into radioactive dust that it went on a nuclear arms race it couldn't afford. It was a vicious circle. The US and Nato knew that they had no wish or intention to invade or attack the Soviet Union but still wanted to have nuclear weapons in key locations in case the Soviet Union's vast superiority in conventional weapons overran Europe. Nukes would then come into play. But only a madman would have actually thought of invading the Soviet Union first as a sort of insurance policy to prevent Armageddon. But Moscow was convinced the US and Nato were full of such madmen and nothing Nato leaders said to try and persuade them that this wasn't true just went over the Soviet heads. They knew, didn't they, that Nato was an aggressive alliance formed solely to destroy the Soviet Union! This dangerous thinking went on for decades and it's a miracle nothing happened. The world survived the Cold War. Now it's happening all over again except it's China versus the US. Some very silly former Chinese ambassador for disarmament at the UN has said that China should consider changing its nuclear policy so that if the US were to get involved in protecting Taiwan against Chinese forces Beijing should press the nuclear button. In other words, drop the no-first-use posture and be the first to use nukes if required. As a former so-called expert on disarmament this is both irresponsible and dangerous talk. But he said it because of the UK's and America's new nuclear alliance with Australia - providing nuclear-powered submarines to the Aussies - and he believes that means Washington, London and Canberra are threatening China. Which they are not, they are just paying for - here we again - additional insurance to make sure Beijing doesn't do anything stupid. It's the same old Cold War argument and it obviously doesn't impress Beijing. Look how Beijing reacted today to the arrival of a dear little Royal Navy frigate in the Tawain Strait. It was like the UK had declared war on China. Oh for goodness sake, Beijing, stop getting so het up and spend more time helping the world by getting rid of all your coal-fired power stations. One frigate steaming up the Taiwan Strait ain 't threatening anybody. It's pathetic. But also worrying because Beijing - and Washington - are getting increasingly paranoid and that's dangerous for all of us.