According to the US Department of Defense and arms control experts on August 20, China is conducting a campaign to expand its nuclear scale and capabilities in parallel with increasing conventional military power.
General Anthony Cotton - Commander of the US Strategic Command - told the National Assembly that China is promoting the process of increasing the stockpile of nuclear weapons that can be launched from land, air and sea.
In its annual report on China's military power, the Pentagon assessed Beijing's nuclear strategy, although it publicly maintains a "no-use-pre-pre-empire" policy, is still likely to include considering the option of using nuclear weapons if attacked with conventional weapons and threatening the survival of nuclear forces, command systems or when facing the risk of serious failure in the conflict.
China's Ministry of National Defense affirmed that it maintains its self-defense policy, opposes any attempt to inflate the "China nuclear threat" and stresses "an un conquitable and unallowable nuclear conflict".
According to Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a website of nuclear scientists, China has stockpiled about 600 nuclear warheads and built about 350 new missile tunnels and many bases for mobile launchers. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is believed to have about 712 missile launchers on land, of which 462 are capable of reaching the US territory.
Many of the PLA launchers are designed for short-range missiles targeting targets in the region, most of which are not carrying nuclear warheads. However, the Pentagon's forecast says that by 2030, China could possess more than 1,000 war-prepared nuclear warheads, ranging from small-strength nuclear-powered precision warheads to megaton-powered transcontinental ballistic missiles.
