Beijing has repeatedly slammed the Pentagon’s reports on China’s growing nuclear arsenal, stressing that the PRC keeps these capabilities “at the minimum level required by national security.”
China and the US are due to discuss nuclear arms control next week, in what will be the first such talks since the Obama administration, the Wall Street Journal has reported.The Chinese Foreign Ministry in turn said without elaborating that the two countries would hold „consultations on arms control and nuclear non-proliferation“ in the coming days. The forthcoming talks come as the issue of Chinese nukes continues to grab the headlines in the PRC and beyond. So how many nuclear warheads does China possess right now? Sputnik explores.Given Beijing remaining tight-lipped on the issue, relevant information can only be obtained from the press and annual reports released by the US Department of Defense (DoD), which were not independently verified.2023 Pentagon Report In the Pentagon’s report last month on Beijing’s military capabilities, it was stated that China has currently amassed more than 500 operational nuclear warheads. Furthermore, the report suggests that China is actively progressing towards increasing its arsenal, with projections indicating that they could possess over 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.“What they’re doing now if you compare it to what they were doing about a decade ago, it really far exceeds that in terms of scale and complexity,“ the official added.
