China 'accelerating' expansion of nuclear arsenal over US threat

China has allegedly accelerated the expansion of its nuclear arsenal due to a change in the country’s assessment of the threat posed by the US, a new report claims.

The report published in Wall Street Journal on Sunday said the US government's wariness about getting directly involved in the Ukraine conflict along with Beijing’s emphasis on creating a credible deterrence has led Beijing to work on the construction of more than 100 missile silos that can house nuclear weapons.

The report quotes sources familiar with the Chinese leadership’s thinking as saying that Chinese leaders see a stronger nuclear arsenal as a way to deter the US from getting directly involved in a potential conflict over Chinese Taipei, which has been a scene of confrontation between the two sides.

It comes amid the raging conflict between Russia and Ukraine, fanned by the Western powers.

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The Chinese government, however, rejects the allegations saying that it plans to only maintain enough nuclear arsenals necessary to ensure the protection of national security interests.

“On the assertions made by US officials that China is expanding dramatically its nuclear capabilities, first, let me say that this is untrue,” Fu Cong, director-general of the Chinese foreign ministry's arms control department, said earlier this year.

WSJ report says that according to Chinese military officials, the country’s nuclear weapons are too ‘outdated’ to act as an ‘effective deterrent’ against a potential American attack.

The report said Chinese leadership was fearful about the US trying to topple the country’s Communist government, citing the Trump and Biden administrations' more aggressive policies, including recent attempts to ban Chinese apps from lucrative US markets, deploying aircraft carriers to disputed waters in the South China Sea, selling arms to Taiwan and even accusing Chinese diplomats of espionage.

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The report comes in the wake of an earlier claim by the Pentagon that the Chinese Communist Party aims to “modernize, diversify and expand” its nuclear forces, investing in “land, sea and air-based nuclear delivery platforms.”

Pentagon claimed that if China maintains its pace in developing its nuclear arsenal, it will have just over 1,000 warheads by 2030.

The US state department has reportedly sent overtures to Beijing on engaging China on arms control, asserting that it was “ready and willing”.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan had earlier said that President Biden was keen to “carry forward discussions on strategic stability”.

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“All of these capabilities work together to say to the US that there is no world in which you can engage in a nuclear first strike against China and not expect nuclear retaliation back on your cities, even with your missile defenses, even with your great counterforce capabilities,” Caitlin Talmadge, an associate professor of security studies at Georgetown University, is quoted as saying in WSJ report. 

Washington and Beijing, the two biggest global economies, have been at odds, and tensions between them have alarmingly soared over the past few years over Taiwan.

The US has around 3,750 nuclear warheads, while the number of nuclear weapon stockpiles in China is still not confirmed.

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