The revelations come as tensions rise between China and the United States and Washington seeks to get Beijing to join a landmark nuclear weapons treaty between the United States and Russia.
In its annual report to Congress on China’s military, the Pentagon said China has nuclear warheads in the low 200, the first time the US military has disclosed this number. The Federation of American Scientists has estimated that China has about 320 nuclear warheads.
The Pentagon said the growth projection was based on factors including that Beijing has enough material to double its nuclear weapons arsenal without new production of fissile material.
The Pentagon’s estimate is in line with an analysis by the Defense Intelligence Agency.
“We are certainly concerned about the numbers … but also about the trajectory of China’s nuclear developments in general,” Chad Sbragia, China’s deputy undersecretary of defense, told reporters.
Earlier this year, the Global Times newspaper, backed by the Communist Party of China, said Beijing needs to expand the number of nuclear warheads to 1,000 in a relatively short time.
Sbragia said that China was also nearing completion of its nuclear triad capability, suggesting that China is more advanced than was publicly known. China has only two of the three legs of the triad operational, but is developing a nuclear-capable air-launched ballistic missile.
The report said that in October 2019, China publicly revealed that the H-6N bomber was its first nuclear-capable air-to-air refueling bomber.
Washington has repeatedly called on China to join trilateral negotiations to extend New START, a nuclear weapons treaty between the United States and Russia that expires in February.
China has said it has no interest in joining the deal, given that America’s nuclear arsenal is roughly 20 times the size of China.
In July, a senior Chinese diplomat said that Beijing “would be happy” to participate in trilateral arms control negotiations, but only if the United States was willing to reduce its nuclear arsenal to China’s level.
China’s growing nuclear arsenal should not be used as an excuse for the United States and Russia not to extend New START, said Kingston Reif, director of disarmament policy and threat reduction for the Arms Control Association advocacy group.
“It further reinforces the importance of extending New START and the folly of conditioning the extension to China and China’s involvement in arms control,” Reif added.
China’s nuclear arsenal is a fraction of that of the United States, which has 3,800 nuclear warheads in storage, and Russia’s, which has about 4,300, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
“Avoid Taiwan independence”
Tensions have been simmering between China and the United States for months. Washington has disagreed with China’s handling of the new coronavirus outbreak and is moving to curb freedoms in Hong Kong. The increasingly aggressive stance comes as President Donald Trump makes a bid for reelection in November.
Another source of tension has been Taiwan. China has stepped up its military activity around the democratic island that Beijing claims as Chinese sovereign territory, sending fighter jets and warships to exercises near Taiwan.
The Pentagon report, based on information from 2019, said China’s military continued to “improve its readiness” to prevent Taiwan’s independence and carry out an invasion if necessary.
On video: Pentagon expects China’s warheads to double in next decade
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