The United States (US) Department of Defense, also referred to as the Pentagon, on Tuesday, reported that China aims to nearly double its nuclear arsenals by the next 12 years and is reaching the ability to launch nuclear strikes by land, air, and sea, a capacity known as a triad.
These reports are revealed amid rising tensions between China and the US and as the US urges China to join a nuclear arms treaty between the US and Russia.
For the first time ever, the Pentagon’s annual report to US Congress on China’s military disclosed China having nuclear warheads in the low 200s. According to The Federation of American Scientists’ estimates, China has about 320 nuclear warheads.
China’s nuclear weapons growth projections were based on China having enough material to double its nuclear weapons stockpile without the need for new fissile material production, said the Pentagon.
The US deputy assistant secretary of defence for China, Chad Sbragia, told reporters, “We’re certainly concerned about the numbers … but also just the trajectory of China’s nuclear developments writ large.”
Global Times, a China-backed newspaper, earlier this year reported that China needs to increase its number of nuclear warheads to 1,000 in a short time span. However, on Wednesday Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying and China’s defence ministry rejected the Pentagon’s findings.
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China’s defence ministry said the Pentagon’s report is “full of the cold war mentality of a zero-sum game,” is a stain on China and provokes animosity between mainland China and Taiwan.
The US has continuously urged China to join the trilateral negotiations to extend New START, a US-Russian nuclear arms treaty that will expire in February.
Although China has stated it has no interest in taking part in the negotiations, reasoning that the US has nuclear warheads is about 20 times the size of China’s, in July, a senior Chinese diplomat responded to the US’s call saying that China would “be happy to” take part in trilateral negotiations conditioned the US agrees to reduce its nuclear arsenal to China’s level.
Currently, Russia has the largest number of nuclear arsenals, standing at roughly 4,300, whereas China, has a fraction of the US’, which has 3,800 nuclear warheads stockpiled, according to the Federation of American Scientists.