China is expanding its nuclear forces “faster than any other country” and may end up with more intercontinental ballistic missiles than Russia or the United States within a decade, a report has concluded.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)’s annual yearbook published on Monday, China added 90 more warheads to its nuclear stockpile, holding a total of 500 as of January this year.
It also said its total number of ICBMs – which currently stands at around 238 – could surpass America’s holding of 800 or even Russia’s total of 1,244 within the next 10 years.
However, the overall size of the nuclear arsenal is expected to remain much smaller than those held by the two largest nuclear powers. The US has 5,044 warheads while Russia has 5,580, the report said.
“China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other country,” said Hans Kristensen, associate senior fellow with Sipri’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme. “But in nearly all of the nuclear-armed states, there are either plans or a significant push to increase nuclear forces.”
There were an estimated total 12,121 warheads in the global nuclear stockpile as of January 2024, with Russia and the US together possessing almost 90 per cent of all nuclear arms. About 9,585 of these are ready to be used, with the rest consisting of retired warheads from the Cold War that have not been fully dismantled.
