China has suggested the United States should “reflect” on its behaviour and reduce its nuclear arsenal after a senior official said Washington may need more warheads.
Pranay Vaddi, senior director for arms control disarmament and non-proliferation at the National Security Council, recently warned that Russia, China and North Korea were expanding their nuclear arsenals at a “breakneck pace” and showed “little or no interest in arms control”.
“Absent a change in the trajectory of the adversary arsenal, we may reach a point in the coming years where an increase from current deployed numbers is required,” he told an annual forum organised by the Arms Control Association, a group advocating limits on nuclear weapons.
“If that day comes, it will result in a determination that more nuclear weapons are required to deter our adversaries and protect the American people and our allies and partners.”
China responded by telling the Russian state news agency Tass: “The US needs to reflect on its behaviour and commit itself to doing the right thing.
“The US should reduce the role of nuclear weapons in national and collective security policies and act responsibly for the welfare of the world.
“The US sits on the largest and most advanced nuclear arsenal in the world. Even so, it clings to a first-use nuclear policy, devises nuclear deterrence strategies against others and has invested heavily in upgrading its nuclear triad [land, air and sea-based missiles]”.
The US has 3,708 nuclear warheads, and Russia has about 4,489, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
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An existing agreement that the US has with Russia – set to expire in February 2026 – limits each country to 1,550 deployed strategic intercontinental warheads.
China has not disclosed the size of its nuclear arsenal, but Washington estimates it has around 500 warheads.
China has declined to take part in three-way discussions on nuclear arms with the US and Russia but it did hold talks with the US in Washington last year.
During the discussions, the first of their kind in four years, the US pressed China to increase its nuclear transparency and engagement on measures to manage strategic risks across multiple domains, including nuclear arms and outer space.
Lu Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Vaddi’s remarks contradicted comments by US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan at the same forum last year that “the United States does not need to increase our nuclear forces to outnumber the combined total of our competitors in order to successfully deter them”.
“It is a very disturbing and a very ineffective message,” Lu said. “I believe the Chinese government will consider this as a comment that adds negative elements to an already turbulent world.
“This message from the US will make some countries prepare some nuclear warheads for launch which will increase the risk facing the world”.
The Chinese embassy in Washington said the country kept its nuclear capabilities at the “minimum level required by national security” and that it did not participate in any form of arms race.
“As long as a country does not use nuclear weapons against China, it should not feel threatened by China’s nuclear weapons,” it said.
Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign ministry responded to Vaddi’s comments by saying that “if the US deploys more strategic nuclear weapons, Russia will do so”
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Chong Ja Ian, a professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, said: “Given reported nuclear force modernisation and expansion by China and Russia as well as Russia’s periodic threats to use nuclear weapons as it pursues aggression toward Ukraine, that the US is looking to have a more robust nuclear capability is unsurprising even if its posture and strategy remain unchanged.”
Song Zhongping, a former instructor for the People’s Liberation Army, said the US wanted to draw China into nuclear arms negotiations, but this would be “wishful thinking”.
“China’s nuclear weapons are only a fraction of those of the US,” he said. “If nuclear arms negotiations are to take place, the US and Russia should be the first to discuss this rather than throwing the blame on China.”
