China denies arms race as its nuclear arsenal nears 600 warheads; India, US watch closely

Downplaying speculations that China is engaged in a nuclear arms race with the US and Russia, Beijing asserted that its rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal— generating over 100 warheads annually and now tottaling around 600—remains at the minimum level required.

 

Since 2023, China has added more than 100 warheads to its nuclear stockpile each year, and the number is expected to grow over the coming decade, a report by Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) noted.

 

According to SIPRI report, China has the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal in the world. While most of these warheads are thought to be stored separately from their launchers, China could be deploying a small number of missiles—something that China has done on a large scale. 

 

Observers point out that China's growing stockpile has implications for India as Beijing's close ally, Pakistan, too, is accelerating its nuclear weapons programme.

 

When asked for his reaction to the SIPRI report, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a media briefing on Monday that China has no comment to make on the report.

 

Guo reiterated that China has always adhered to a nuclear strategy of self-defence and maintains its nuclear capabilities at the minimum level required for national security, without engaging in any arms race.

ALSO READ: India, Pakistan increasing nuclear weapons capability, says SIPRI

According to analysts, China is expediting its nuclear and missile programme with the intention of becoming a world-class military power—something that  President Xi Jinping is keen on. 

 

South China Morning Post quoted Hans Kristensen, an associate senior fellow at SIPRI and director of the Federation of American Scientists' nuclear information project, as saying that there could have been an apparent decision that the previous minimum deterrent was insufficient to deter potential adversaries, and possibly a conclusion that increasingly capable US missile defence systems could reduce the effectiveness of the Chinese retaliatory capability.

 

The report said as of January, China had completed or was close to completing around 350 new ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) silos in three large desert fields in its north and three mountainous areas in the east.

 

Kristensen said once loaded and armed, the additional ICBM silos clearly provide significant additional destructive power that China could inflict on the US.

 

If China eventually filled each of its new silos under construction with a single-warhead missile, it would have the capacity to deploy around 650 warheads on its ICBMs within another decade, but if each silo were filled with a missile equipped with three MIRVs, this number could rise to more than 1,200 warheads, the Post quoted the SIPRI report.

 

China is in the middle of a significant modernisation and expansion of its nuclear arsenal, according to SIPRI, where it is refitting its Type 094 ballistic missile submarines or SSBNs (submersible ship, ballistic, nuclear) with longer-range missiles while also developing a new Type 096 SSBN and strategic bomber aircraft.

Defence