China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than anticipated, says Pentagon

China develops its nuclear arsenal much faster than expected, indicated a report published by the Pentagon according to which Beijing can already launch ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads from land, sea and air.

According to the report, China could have 700 nuclear warheads by 2027 and reach 1,000 by 2030, an arsenal two and a half times larger than the Pentagon predicted just a year ago.

The People’s Republic of China “is investing and expanding the number of its land, sea and air nuclear platforms and building the necessary infrastructure to support this significant expansion of its nuclear forces.”

The assessment appears in the annual report that the Defense Department submits to Congress on Chinese military developments.

Like the United States and Russia, the two major nuclear powers, China is building a “nuclear triad” with the ability to launch nuclear weapons from land-based ballistic missiles, from air-launched missiles and from submarines, according to the report.

He adds that China is likely not seeking the ability to launch an unprovoked nuclear strike against a nuclear adversary – primarily the United States – but wants to dissuade others from doing so by maintaining a credible threat of nuclear retaliation.

A year ago, the Pentagon report on China stated that the country had about 200 launchable warheads and that it would double them by 2030. But in recent months independent researchers published satellite photos of new nuclear missile silos in the west of the Asian giant.

This acceleration “is very worrying for us,” said a US defense official. “It raises doubts about their intentions.”

Main rival of the USA

The Pentagon declared China as its main security concern for the future, while Beijing promises to turn the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into a “world-class force” by 2049, according to its official plan.

China expands its air, space and maritime forces with the goal of projecting its power globally, as the United States military has done for decades.

The rivalry raised concerns about a potential clash between the United States and China, especially in regards to Taiwan, a Washington-backed autonomous democracy that China claims as its territory.

The new Pentagon report claims that China’s rapid military modernization aims to have by 2027 the ability to overcome any setbacks in efforts to reclaim Taiwan, whether through pressure or military force.

By 2027, the report says, China’s goal is to have “the capabilities to counter the US military in the Indo-Pacific region and force the leadership of Taiwan to come to the negotiating table under Beijing’s terms.”

October 2020 crisis

At the same time, the report confirms press reports from recent months that revealed that in October 2020 Pentagon officials were forced to quell Beijing’s concerns that the United States, within the framework of the internal political tensions derived from the elections presidential, was intended to instigate a conflict in the South China Sea.

Exposing its fears, the PLA then stepped up its warnings through the state-controlled media, launched large-scale military exercises, expanded its deployments and put troops in greater readiness, according to the report.

It was only after senior Pentagon officials communicated directly with their Chinese counterparts that concerns subsided and a Beijing defense spokesman publicly announced that the United States did not plan to trigger a crisis.

“These events highlighted the potential for misunderstandings and miscalculations, and underscored the importance of effective and timely communication,” the document adds.

It also questions the EPL’s intentions regarding the biological investigation of substances with potential medical and military uses.

“Studies conducted at military medical institutions in the People’s Republic of China addressed the identification, testing, and characterization of various families of potent toxins with dual-use applications,” raising concerns about compliance with global biological and chemical weapons treaties.

Those resentments have increased since the beginning of 2020, after the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic in the area of ​​a Chinese laboratory with connections to the PLA in Hunan.

China denies that the lab had anything to do with the COVID-19 outbreak, but international researchers have had limited access to its facilities.

Instability

Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s top general warned on Wednesday that the Chinese military’s staggering technological advances, reflected in its recent test of hypersonic missiles circling the globe, leave the world poised to enter an era of greater strategic instability.

“We are witnessing one of the greatest shifts in global geostrategic power that the world has ever witnessed,” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, warned at the Aspen Security Forum.

“We are going to have to give more importance to maintaining peace between the great powers,” he said.