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China’s Nuclear Arsenal Is Growing Faster Than Expected, Pentagon Says

  • At least 1,000 nuclear warheads likely by 2030, report says
  • China has said the U.S. sees it as an ‘imaginary threat’
Bloomberg business news
WATCH: A new assessment by the Pentagon says China’s nuclear weapons arsenal is expanding more rapidly than previously believed. Stephen Engle reports.Source: Bloomberg

China is expanding its nuclear weapons capabilities more rapidly than previously believed, the Pentagon warned in a report released on Wednesday. 

The People’s Republic of China “likely intends to have at least 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, exceeding the pace that the Department of Defense projected in 2020,” the Pentagon said in the latest edition of an annual report to Congress. The report also cites China’s construction of at least three silo fields, saying they will contain “hundreds” of new intercontinental ballistic missiles.