The Pentagon report also said that China has started building at least three new missile fields.
China is expanding its nuclear power much faster than US officials predicted just a year ago, according to a Pentagon report released on Wednesday, leaving Beijing to match or surpass US global power by mid-century. Uncovers the extensive and quick buildup of military muscle designed to enable. .
The report said that the number of Chinese nuclear weapons could increase to 700 within six years and above 1,000 by 2030.
The report did not say how many weapons China has today, but a year ago the Pentagon said the number was in the “low 200” and was likely to double by the end of this decade.
Read also: China continues “incremental and strategic action” to press territorial claims with India: Pentagon
The United States, by comparison, has 3,750 nuclear warheads and has no plans to increase it. As recently as 2003, America’s total number was about 10,000.
The Biden administration is undertaking a comprehensive review of its nuclear policy and has not said how it may be influenced by its concerns over China.
The report doesn’t suggest an open conflict with China, but it fits an emerging American narrative of the People’s Liberation Army, as China calls its military intent on challenging the United States in all areas of war – Air, land, sea, space and cyberspace.
Against that background, US defense officials have said they are concerned about China’s intentions with regard to the situation in Taiwan.
PM Modi at COP26 Climate Summit: India to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070 Highlight
“The developed capabilities and concepts of the PLA continue to strengthen (China’s) ability to fight and win a war against a stronger enemy,” the report said. Self-governing island which China claims as its own.
Wednesday’s report is the latest reminder to Congress, already raving about Beijing’s military ambitions, that the Pentagon’s persistent promises to focus more on countering China have only progressed incrementally beyond the negotiation phase.
In addition to a controversial decision to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines, a new move is expected by the Biden administration through its announcement in September of plans to increase the US military presence in Australia.
China’s military modernization is progressing on a broader front, but its nuclear progress is particularly noteworthy.
The report said China has already established what is known as a nuclear triad – a combination of land-, sea- and air-based missiles that the United States and Russia have for decades.
China is adding air-launched ballistic missiles to its existing land and sea-based nuclear forces.
The Pentagon’s report was based on information gathered as of December 2020 and therefore does not refer to or mention Gen.
Mark Milley’s expression of concern last month about Chinese hypersonic weapons tests last summer came as a troubling one.
Wednesday’s report only mentioned the widely known fact that China had landed a DF-17 medium-range ballistic missile, which was equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle designed to evade US missile defense.
Shortly before the report was released on Wednesday, Milley told the Aspen Security Forum that hypersonic missile tests and other Chinese advances are proof of what is at stake for the world.
“We are witnessing one of the biggest changes in global and geo-strategic power the world has seen,” he said.
The Pentagon report said China is pursuing a network of foreign bases that could “interfere” in US military operations and support Chinese military operations against the United States.
President Xi Jinping has said that China plans to become a global military power by 2049.
The Pentagon’s comprehensive assessment of China’s military strategy and force development is the latest in an annual series of reports to Congress and was in some respects more detailed than previous editions.
For example, it questioned China’s compliance with international biological and chemical weapons agreements, citing studies conducted at military medical institutions that identified, tested and characterized groups of “potent toxins” whose There are civilian and military uses.
On the basis of the Pentagon’s prediction that China will drastically increase its nuclear arsenal, Wednesday’s report did not say.
A senior defense official, who briefed reporters ahead of the report’s public release, and thus spoke on condition of anonymity, said the forecast reflects a number of known incidents, in addition to China’s nuclear bomber capability, As well as public statements in Chinese official media. Which has referenced China’s need for 1,000 nuclear weapons.
The report also said that China has begun construction of at least three new missile fields that “cumulatively include hundreds of underground silos” from which ICBMs can be launched.
The report did not provide any details on the new missile fields, but private nuclear analysts have pointed out that satellite imagery shows what appear to be huge new missile silo fields under construction in north-central China.
In an update published Tuesday, Federation of American Scientists analysts Matt Korda and Hans Christensen said they have seen continued construction progress and have discovered “unique facilities that are intended to support missile operations once the silo field is operational.” appear from.”
One of those facilities, he said, is a complex in the mountains that is surrounded by four tunnels into underground facilities.
Tunnels are under construction and a large amount of excavated soil has been dumped nearby.
Analysts said the function of the facility is unknown but “could potentially include missile and/or warhead storage and management.”
Other structures under construction could be technical service facilities and launch control centers, he said.
.