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including hypersonic missiles, and are modernizing our nuclear triad at a glacial pace while China is rapidly adding new capabilities.

The response to the new circumstances should reflect a Cold War-era urgency. The Biden administration has proposed more spending on hypersonic missiles, but the latest news should mean even more of an emphasis on their rapid deployment, so we can hold at risk Chinese assets and maintain our deterrence.

We should, with an eye to the growing Chinese missile threat, deploy missile-defense interceptors in Australia and more sensors in space, as well as work toward directed-energy weapons that would be the best counter to hypersonic missiles.

If we aren’t going to call it a new Cold War, we must — or risk falling further behind — treat it as one.

Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review.

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