China is rapidly expanding its nuclear forces with new missiles, submarines, and bombers and will double its warhead stockpile in the coming decade, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency said this week.
DIA director Army Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley also said in a speech Wednesday that Russia is building large numbers of tactical nuclear weapons in addition to new strategic weapons, including an earth-penetrating nuclear warhead similar to a weapon canceled by the United States years ago under pressure from anti-nuclear activists in Congress.
On China’s nuclear forces, Ashley stated: “Over the next decade, China is likely to at least double the size of its nuclear stockpile in the course of implementing the most rapid expansion and diversification of its nuclear arsenal in China’s history.”
The three-star general noted that last year alone China conducted more ballistic missile tests in developing and training than those carried out by the rest of the world combined.
“We expect this modernization to continue, and this trajectory is consistent with Chinese president Xi’s vision for China’s military, which he laid out at the 19th Party Congress and stated that China’s military will be ‘fully transformed into a first tier force’ by 2050,” Ashely said in a speech to a Washington think tank. – READ MORE