China is likely to have loaded more than 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles across three silo fields and has no desire for arms control talks, according to a draft Pentagon report which highlighted Beijing’s growing military ambitions.
China is expanding and modernizing its weapons stockpile faster than any other nuclear-armed power. Beijing has described reports of a military buildup as efforts to “smear and defame China and deliberately mislead the international community.”
The US and Russian nuclear postures are far more alarming.
China still has a “relatively small” nuclear arsenal (approximately 600 warheads, of which 24 used to be deployed in missiles - apparently it’s 100 now). That is not enough for a counter-force strike (disarming strike) at either the US or Russia, just enough to credibly threaten with unbearably big casualties. It should be noted that the arsenal has been growing, and will likely keep on growing. :(
The US has 3700 warheads with 1770 deployed in weapons. About 17 times more. Enough to immediately wage a civilization-ending war.
And then there’s Russia. Nobody knows if their weapons work, they no longer cooperate with weapons control, but they have approximately 4300 warheads and last time when things were counted, had 1718 deployed in weapons. Enough to immediately wage a civilization-ending war.
While I would prefer China to keep its warheads off weapons, I cannot currently point a blaming finger as others aren’t doing that either. :(