China’s nuclear arsenal will more than triple to 1,500 nuclear warheads by around 2035, according to a Pentagon report released Tuesday, which also highlighted the steady improvement of China’s air force. Washington has identified Beijing as its main military challenge, and China’s annual military report highlights the growth of both nuclear and conventional forces.
“The Ministry of Defense estimates that the (Chinese) stockpile of operational nuclear warheads has exceeded 400.“, the report says. “If China continues to increase its nuclear stockpile at this rate, it will likely have about 1,500 warheads.until 2035
This expansion of China’s nuclear arsenal could be a source of instability, Pentagon spokesman General Pat Ryder said. “The more the spread, the more worrisome it is, the more it destabilizes the regionhe told reporters on Tuesday.
China is the third nuclear power after Russia and the United States
However, this arsenal is still far behind the US and Russia, which have several thousand nuclear warheads. Beijing, which is also working to upgrade ballistic missiles capable of carrying those nuclear warheads, tested 135 in 2021.more than the rest of the worldnot counting those shot during military conflicts, the report says. And the Chinese Air Force is achieving great success.”quickly catching up with the Western Air Force“.
Ahead of the report’s release, a senior military official said the Chinese Air Force was trying to “make rapid progress on all frontsincluding equipment, pilots and other personnel.
The report also finds that China leads the “more coercive and aggressive actions in the Indo-Pacific regiona term used by the US administration to refer to the changing reality of Asia-Pacific alliances. This is particularly true of Taiwan, an island that Beijing claims as part of its territory.
A visit to the island in August by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi added to tensions, in response to China’s most aggressive military exercises around the island since the 1990s. It has declined since then, but a senior military official said China’s activity around Taiwan, while reduced, remained more important than before and a cause for concern.
Source: Le Figaro
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