The US military warns of what analysts have described as a major expansion of China’s nuclear missile silo fields
July 30, 2021, 7:36 a.m.
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TAIPEI, Taiwan – The US military warns of what analysts have described as a significant expansion of China’s nuclear missile silo fields at a time of heightened Beijing-Washington tension.
Researchers from the Federation of American Scientists estimate that there are around 250 underground missile silos under construction in China after using satellite imagery to identify a new field being built in western China.
The US Strategic Command on Wednesday tweeted a link to an article in the New York Times about the federation results published this week.
“The public has discovered what we have been saying all along about the growing threat to the world and the surrounding veil of secrecy,” said Strategic Command, overseeing America’s nuclear arsenal.
The field in the Xinjiang region is the second reported this summer. In June, researchers from the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California identified another field under construction in the neighboring province of Gansu.
China has not commented on the reports. When asked about the latest, the State Department said on Friday that it was unaware of the situation.
The reports come at a time when US-China relations have plummeted to their worst levels in decades. The two nations remain sharply divided on a number of issues, including trade, technology, cybersecurity, human rights, and China’s increasingly assertive foreign policy under President Xi Jinping.
The expansion of the Chinese nuclear force would likely feed into all US calculations for possible military confrontations over trouble spots such as Taiwan or the South China Sea.
The outspoken editor of the state-run Global Times said this week that US institutions and media are playing up reports on the missile fields to put pressure on China, but that the nation should not be intimidated.
“Look at what American politicians are saying about China and see the provocative actions of their warplanes and warships near China,” said Hu Xijin. “China must fully step up its military power building and nuclear deterrence as the cornerstone of its national security.”
Both locations are around 800 square kilometers. Ground-based silos can accommodate ballistic ICBMs. Spreading the silos over such a large area makes aiming the field a lot more complicated. Analysts say some of the silos could also act as bait.
“The Chinese missile silo program represents the most extensive silo construction since the rocket silo was built in the USA and the Soviet Union during the Cold War,” wrote the researchers Matt Korda and Hans Kristensen in the report of the Federation of American Scientists.
Kuo Yu-jen, a defense studies expert at the Institute for National Policy Research in Taiwan, said it was very difficult to accurately count a country’s underground silos, but the satellite images recently released look “very, very similar.” to missile silos.
He described the results as a US warning to others that China is violating an international consensus on nuclear disarmament in expanding its nuclear weapons capabilities.
“It’s also about informing Russia about it. China, if it increases its missile count, threatens not only the US, but also Russia and Europe, “said Kuo, director of the Institute for National Policy Research in Taiwan.
The US and Russia, which have the largest nuclear arsenals in the world, held fruitless talks in Geneva this week to prevent a new nuclear arms race.
China’s nuclear arsenal is estimated by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute at 350 warheads, while the US or Russia have around 6,000 each. The Pentagon says China will at least double its arsenal in 10 years.
The latest investigation follows a February discovery by Kristensen about the construction of 11 underground silos on a huge missile training area near Jilantai in north-central China.
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Gambrell contributed to this report from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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