Beijing is continuing to build up its nuclear arsenal and inventory of missiles capable of striking U.S. bases in Japan, the Pentagon has said, despite corruption probes at the upper echelons of the Chinese military.
The U.S. Defense Department said Wednesday in an annual congressionally mandated report on Chinese military power that Beijing possessed more than 600 operational nuclear warheads as of mid-2024, with estimates that it will probably have over 1,000 warheads by 2030, a force that would continue to grow through at least 2035.
The report also said that China now has 1,300 medium-range ballistic missiles in its arsenal, 300 more than last year’s estimate. With a range of 1,000 to 1,300 kilometers, the weapons are easily able to hit key U.S. and Japanese military outposts in Okinawa Prefecture.
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