China is rapidly building up its nuclear weapons capabilities and is on pace to nearly quadruple the number of warheads in its arsenal by 2035, narrowing its firepower gap with the US, the Pentagon has warned.
“Over the next decade, the PRC (People’s Republic of China) aims to modernize, diversify and expand its nuclear forces,” the Pentagon said on Tuesday in its annual report on China’s military strength. The buildup is far larger and more complex than a nuclear modernization initiative that China undertook a decade ago, the report added.
Beijing currently has about 400 nuclear warheads, the Pentagon said, up from a previous estimate of 350. At the current pace of development, the stockpile will increase to about 1,000 warheads by the end of this decade and to 1,500 by 2035. By comparison, the US has 3,750 active warheads and a total stockpile of more than 5,000.