China nearing milestone in N-weapons buildup: Pentagon

Bloomberg

China’s rapid military buildup means the country is closer to joining the US and Russia as the top nations capable of deploying nuclear weapons on land, in the air and at sea, the Pentagon warned in a new report.
China’s progress in upgrading its strategic bombers to carry nuclear payloads puts it on the cusp of achieving a “triad” of delivery systems, punctuating a two-decade investment that
coincided with the country’s economic rise, according to an annual Defense Department report to Congress published.
“Over the next decade, China will expand and diversify its
nuclear forces, likely at least doubling its nuclear warhead stockpile,” according to the 200-page report. “China’s nuclear forces appear to be on a trajectory to exceed the size of a
‘minimum deterrent’ as described in the PLA’s own writings,” it added, referring to
the People’s Liberation Army.
The development of a nuclear triad raises the long-term stakes in the complex relationship between Beijing and Washington. Although the two sides have limited their responses to current tensions to measures such as economic sanctions, tariffs and harsh rhetoric, China’s growing arsenal of nuclear weapons will provide an added rationale for US officials who want to accelerate the modernisation of America’s nuclear forces.
China’s defense ministry
denounced the report as a document created with a “zero-sum-game mindset and Cold War mentality,” saying that the US had “misinterpreted” the country’s nuclear policy and stirred up confrontation with Taiwan. “It’s extremely wrong and China firmly rejects it,” the ministry said in a statement.
The report arrives during one of the most tense periods in US-China ties in decades. President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused China of not doing enough to stop the Covid-19 pandemic that has now killed about 184,000 Americans. The two nations are also at loggerheads over Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong, the use of technology such as 5G and apps including TikTok which are tied to China and disputed claims in the South China Sea.
Analysts questioned what Amy Woolf, the top nuclear weapons analyst for the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, called the report’s “alarmist view.” The US “has long believed” that, at least for the US and Russia, “a triad is stabilising because it reduces the vulnerability of the retaliatory force, reduces the risk of crisis instability and strengthens deterrence,” Woolf said.
Kingston Reif, a director with the Arms Control Association, said the Defense Department’s estimate of the size of China’s warhead stockpile is “even less than open-source estimates.” He said it “can’t be overstated” that Russia’s arsenal is “much larger and more dangerous.”
The Trump administration has been pressing to bring China into its nuclear arms control talks with Russia.
As part of President Xi Jinping’s efforts to build a “world class” military by 2049, the Defense Department report said the People’s Liberation Army has already achieved parity with or exceeded the US in at least three key areas: shipbuilding, land-based conventional ballistic and cruise missiles and integrated air defense systems.
China’s government “has marshaled the resources, technology and political will over the past two decades to strengthen and modernise the PLA in nearly every respect,” according to the report.
While the country has one overseas military base, in the East African nation of Djibouti, China’s government “is very likely already considering and planning for additional overseas military logistics facilities to
support naval, air and ground forces,” the report said.