China is quickly modernising its nuclear launch capabilities

• China has a triad of nuclear forces – solid-fueled mobile and siloed land-based missiles, nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, and bombers with a full, re-established nuclear mission.
• The ratio of stockpiled and stored warheads will shift when more new launchers become active in 2021.

BEIJING: China possesses at least 350 nuclear weapons, more than double India’s 160 and far fewer than the US and Russia, and has significantly enhanced its launch capabilities in recent years, according to a new assessment by a Swedish monitor tracking arms trade and disarmament.

As per the report, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was armed with mostly liquid-fueled land-based ballistic missiles and a few sea-based ballistic missiles until less than a decade ago, with a tiny stockpile of gravity bombs available for bombers.

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In a report released on Monday, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) stated, “China has started to put in place a triad of nuclear forces – solid-fueled mobile and siloed land-based missiles, nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), and bombers with a full, re-established nuclear mission – in order to strengthen its nuclear deterrence and counterstrike capabilities in response to what it sees as a growing threat from other countries.”

As per the research, the ratio of stockpiled and stored warheads will shift when more new launchers become active in 2021.

“These warheads have been assigned to China’s operational land- and sea-based ballistic missiles and to nuclear-configured aircraft,” as per the annual Sipri study, Armament, Disarmament, and International Security.

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“China has developed its capabilities for over five decades. It’s fair to say there has been impressive progress,” he said. “China’s … policy is consistent. We use it for self defence. We will not be the first to use nuclear (weapons),” Wei said.

The ultimate purpose of China’s nuclear weapons, according to Wei, is to prevent nuclear war.