The United States has accused China of rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal, while Beijing has dismissed the claims as “groundless” and accused Washington of using them as a pretext to resume nuclear testing.
According to The Guardian, Christopher Yeaw, the US Assistant Secretary of State, told the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva that China’s buildup is “unprecedented, deliberate, rapid and opaque.” He said Beijing could have enough fissile material for more than 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030 and cited data suggesting a 2.75-magnitude underground explosion in June 2020.
China strongly rejected the accusations. Ambassador Shen Jian said Beijing opposes what he called distortions of its nuclear policy and would not engage in a nuclear arms race. He argued that China’s arsenal is much smaller than those of the United States and Russia, making it unfair and unrealistic to expect China to join trilateral arms control talks.
The tensions come after the expiration of New START on 5 February, the last major arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow, which had limited each side to 1,550 deployed warheads.
According to International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), both Russia and the United States still possess more than 5,000 nuclear weapons each.
Washington says Moscow violated the treaty and is now striking for a “better agreement” that would also include China, warning that without any agreement in place, the world could face a new nuclear arms race.
Meanwhile, a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found no conclusive evidence of an explosion at China’s Lop Nur test site.
