(Adds comment from Chinese Foreign and Defense ministries)
By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - China is expected to at least
double the number of its nuclear warheads over the next decade
from the low 200s now and is nearing the ability to launch
nuclear strikes by land, air and sea, a capacity known as a
triad, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
The revelations came as tensions rise between China and the
United States and as Washington seeks to have Beijing join a
flagship nuclear arms treaty between the United States and
Russia.
In its annual report to Congress on China's military, the
Pentagon said that China has nuclear warheads in the low 200s,
the first time the U.S. military has disclosed this number. The
Federation of American Scientists has estimated that China has
about 320 nuclear warheads.
The Pentagon said the growth projection was based on factors
including Beijing having enough material to double its nuclear
weapons stockpile without new fissile material production.
The Pentagon's estimate is in line with an analysis by the
Defense Intelligence Agency.
"We're certainly concerned about the numbers ... but also
just the trajectory of China's nuclear developments writ large,"
Chad Sbragia, deputy assistant secretary of defense for China,
told reporters.
Earlier this year, China's Communist Party-backed newspaper
Global Times said Beijing needs to expand the number of its
nuclear warheads to 1,000 in a relatively short time.
China on Wednesday rejected the report's findings. Speaking
in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying
said on Wednesday the report is full of biases and deliberately
distorts China's strategic intentions.
China's defense ministry said on Wednesday that the report
is "full of the cold war mentality of a zero-sum game," is a
smear on China, and provokes animosity between the mainland and
Taiwan.
Sbragia said China was also nearing completion of its
nuclear triad capacity, suggesting the Asian country is further
along than previously publicly known. China has only two of the
three legs of triad operational but is developing a nuclear-
capable, air-launched ballistic missile.
The report said that in October 2019 China publicly revealed
the H-6N bomber as its first nuclear-capable air-to-air
refueling bomber.
Washington has repeatedly called for China to join in
trilateral negotiations to extend New START, a U.S.-Russian
nuclear arms treaty that is due to expire in February.
China has said it has no interest in joining the
negotiations, given that the U.S. nuclear arsenal is about 20
times the size of China's.
In July, a senior Chinese diplomat said Beijing would "be
happy to" participate in trilateral arms control negotiations,
but only if the United States were willing to reduce its nuclear
arsenal to China's level.
China's growing nuclear arsenal should not be used as an
excuse for the United States and Russia not to extend New START,
Kingston Reif, director for disarmament and threat reduction
policy at the Arms Control Association advocacy group, said.
It "further reinforces the importance of extending New START
and the folly of conditioning extension on China and China's
participation in arms control," Reif added.
China's nuclear arsenal is a fraction of the United States',
which has 3,800 nuclear warheads stockpiled, and Russia's, which
has roughly 4,300, according to the Federation of American
Scientists.
'PREVENT TAIWAN INDEPENDENCE'
Tensions have been simmering between China and the United
States for months. Washington has taken issue with China's
handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak and moves to curb
freedoms in Hong Kong. The increasingly aggressive posture
comes as Republican President Donald Trump vies for re-election
on Nov. 3.
Another source of tension has been Taiwan. China has stepped
up its military activity around the democratic island, which
Beijing claims as sovereign Chinese territory, sending fighter
jets and warships on exercises close to Taiwan.
The Pentagon report, based on 2019 information, said China's
military continued to "enhance its readiness" to prevent
Taiwan's independence and carry out an invasion if needed.