China is expanding its nuclear arsenal “faster than any other country” and could have as many intercontinental ballistic missiles as the US or Russia by the end of the decade.
Beijing now has at least 500 nuclear warheads, up from 410 a year ago, according to an annual report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a Sweden-based think tank focused on conflict and arms control.
For the first time, China has likely begun deploying a small number of them – estimated to be around 24 – on high operational alert, ready for launch at a moment’s notice, it added.
China is investing heavily in modern weaponry, including its nuclear arsenal, and could have as many as 1,000 warheads by 2030.
By January 2024, the United States and Russia had amassed 3,708 and 4,380 nuclear warheads respectively, accounting for the majority of the global total of just over 12,000 weapons.
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@FranchiseSnailPatriot2yrs2Y
When they were deciding to hand over our manufacturing industries it never seemed to occur to western politicians to ask what China might do with its new found wealth . Shouldn't it have been obvious that if we allowed China to become an economic super-power it would soon become a military one also?
Nuclear weapons are a red herring. No one will use them first, because they would instantly become the target of every other nuclear armed state. Putin tried to look crazy and sick at the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, as if he might just, and the west called his bluff. They will fall into the dustbin of history like biological and chemical weapons during WW1.
@9PDSPW42yrs2Y
No sane person would use them first, and we all hope that the first user would get their skull bashed in by a global coalition. But I think a global treaty codifying that policy would go a long way
@E1ectoralJoshMountain2yrs2Y
American and Russian weapons are many decades old. China’s are brand new. Russia probably can’t even afford the massively-expensive maintenance for their stockpile.
@9PDSPW42yrs2Y
It does not matter that the weapons are old, they still work. Intercepting an ICBM is about as impossible today as it was when they were first invented.
Shouldn’t we be underwater by now per Al Gore and his hockey stick graph? Just get on with life and enjoy it. There is nothing you or I can do so no point in worrying, the doom mongers are everywhere.
@9PDSPW42yrs2Y
You are misinterpreting what sea level rise is, and putting too much weight on what Al Gore specifically says. Sea level rise is slow as terrestrial glaciers melt and water undergoes thermal expansion. There won't be one big tsunami of water permanently flooding the eastern seaboard. The slow creep will damage seaside infrastructure, increase risks from high tides, and make storm surges stronger. One or two inches of water right now may not sound like much compared to the whole ocean, but your tone would quickly change if it was your floor covered in one inch of water, eh? Or over the next few decades, a whole foot.
@Unanim0usHeronForward2yrs2Y
One question… why do we buy a trillion quids worth of stuff off them and educate all their scientists at our best universities if they are our enemy?
Now we’ll need to spend another hundred billion on arms to counter the threat. Probably much more than we save by outsourcing all our manufacturing there
Yeah, ok let's expand our nuclear arsenals so we can nuke ourselves 3 times over again. Suppose it was only a matter of time before the chinese did this.
@9PDSPW42yrs2Y
All countries should agree to never use nukes first
There should be a global no-first-strike treaty. All the nuclear armed countries (even the bad ones) agree to never use nuclear weapons first in any conflict and that they will all attack anyone (treaty signatory or not, ignoring all previous alliances) who uses nuclear weapons first against anyone. This treaty would only apply to nuclear weapons, not conventional conflicts. It may have to come with some other concessions, like diplomatic recognition of DPRK or Ukrainian neutrality, to get all the nuclear powers to sign it.
I think that would significantly reduce nuclear tensions. Not completely of course, but it may calm the nerves in negotiations if the nukes are off the table.
@FreeTradeLaylaGreen2yrs2Y
Between the strange and terrible pathogens in labs around the world that could kill us all slowly and painfully. We now have this. China building more nukes. The planet is changing, the climate in parts of the world becoming uninhabitable and the world Powers, US, EU, China, India, all chanting, 'We've got to make more weapons.' At least the EU is trying to do something about the climate.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
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