La Jornada – Pentagon: China will increase its arsenal to 1,500 nuclear warheads

Washington. China is expanding its nuclear arsenal and is poised to quadruple the number of nuclear warheads by 2035, rapidly closing the gap with the United States, the Pentagon said in a report released yesterday.

The report builds on a warning issued last year by the military that China would be expanding its nuclear arsenal at a much faster rate than US officials anticipated, highlighting a vast expansion of military power aimed at allowing Beijing to equal or surpass that of the United States by mid-century.

The Pentagon said last year that the number of China’s nuclear warheads could rise to 700 within six years and could reach 1,000 by 2030. The new report says China currently has about 400 nuclear warheads and that number could rise to 1,500 by 2035.

By comparison, the United States has 3,750 active nuclear warheads.