China Owns 400 Nuclear Warheads, According to Pentagon Report

[Beet]

A Pentagon report warns that China now has more than 400 nuclear warheads, approximately doubling its nuclear arsenal in just two years...

The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) launched approximately 135 ballistic missiles for testing and training in 2021, “more than the rest of the world combined, excluding ballistic missile employment in conflict zones,” according to the report. It also continued to construct three intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silo fields, which will contain at least 300 new ICBM silos.

https://www.voanews.com/a/china-now-owns-400-nuclear-warheads-pentagon-report/6855142.html

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

China has a lot of ICBM sites and ballistic missile launches because it is the only country to maintain ICBMs which aren't meant to be nuclear.

400 nuclear warheads are more than what China historically maintained, but the stockpile is still several orders of magnitude smaller than the American and Russian arsenals and only double the British/French ones. The report observes that they could scale up, but for what purpose besides pointless dick-waving? Having more than 200 or so apocalypse weapons doesn't meaningfully increase influence and is a huge waste of money.

[Frodo]

This is the headline title that should have been posted:

China to increase nuclear warheads to 1,500, Pentagon warns

China is expanding its nuclear force and is on pace to nearly quadruple the number of warheads it has by 2035, rapidly closing its gap with the United States, the Pentagon said in a report released Tuesday.

The report builds on the military’s warning last year that China is expanding its nuclear force much faster than U.S. officials had predicted, highlighting a broad and accelerating buildup of military muscle designed to enable Beijing to match or surpass U.S. global power by mid-century.

Last year, the Pentagon said the number of Chinese nuclear warheads could increase to 700 within six years and may top 1,000 by 2030. The new report says China currently has about 400 nuclear warheads, and that number could grow to 1,500 by 2035.

The United States, by comparison, has 3,750 active nuclear warheads.

We should make one last bilateral nuclear arms control agreement with Russia by 2026 when the current New START extension expires that should last fifteen years, with maybe a five-year extension.  After which, we definitely should include China in any future talks involving nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.  We want to get to the point at which all three major nuclear powers by the early 2040s (the United States, Russia, China) have a cap at around 2,000 to 2,500 (active) nuclear warheads each.

[CumbrianLefty]

Is that all?

(yes, I do know that would be well down on peak levels)

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

And we have 8,000.

Regardless, Chinese nuclear doctrine is heavily focused on second-strike capability, and most of their missiles are locked away underground.

Stop trolling wumao.

[Agonized-Statism]

Obviously no one compares to the US and Russia in nuclear proliferation, but I would have guessed a stronger third place, like a thousand. Is it because they got nuclear weapons later and more or less bowed out of the Cold War early?

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Obviously no one compares to the US and Russia in nuclear proliferation, but I would have guessed a stronger third place, like a thousand. Is it because they got nuclear weapons later and more or less bowed out of the Cold War early?

That, and a greater reluctance to use nuclear weapons to begin with. China and India are the only nuclear powers to explicitly rule out a first strike policy.

Once China had acquired the bomb, Mao had scared most of his allies and enemies by making some of the most inflammatory statements ever issued by the leader of a nuclear power. He once dismissed nuclear annihilation by pointing out that it’d only be a minor event for the universe. This presumably spooked some Chinese elites, too, so perhaps it was a factor in their nuclear caution.

[CumbrianLefty]

Mao said something along the lines of "there are a billion Chinese and you can't kill us all" IIRC.

Well *yes*, but......