US Powerless to Curb China’s Nuclear Build-Up

china’s strategic deterrence, china’s nuclear doctrine, china’s nuclear stockpile, trump-xi meeting, us-china relations, arms race, nuclear weapons, us nuclear arsenal

Ekaterina Blinova

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President Donald Trump suggested in a Truth Social post that China could match the US in the number of nuclear warheads by 2030.

China will develop its nuclear triad according to its own strategic plans, says the pundit, independent of external opinion.

It is highly unlikely to join any future arms control talks, including trilateral negotiations with the US and Russia. Why? Because of the clear disparity between the nuclear forces of China and the US, as Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Guo Jiakun explained in August, emphasizing the striking difference in Chinese and American nuclear policies and strategic security conditions.

«Trump claims that China will reach parity in five years, but that’s far from certain — even though China continues to modernize its nuclear forces,» Korotchenko notes.

The PRC’s nuclear stockpile is estimated at 600 warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

SIPRI and the US Department of Defense project that China could exceed 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, and possibly reach 1,500 by 2035. Even so, it would still fall short of the US arsenal of over 5,000 warheads.