NYT: China accelerates expansion of nuclear arsenal

Satellite images of secret nuclear facilities in the valleys of southwestern China indicate that Beijing is expanding its nuclear arsenal at a time when the world’s last remaining barriers restraining nuclear weapons are eroding, The New York Times (NYT) reports.

The newspaper published satellite photographs showing facilities located in the Zitong and Pingtong valleys in Sichuan Province. These sites were originally constructed around 60 years ago as part of Mao Zedong’s “Third Front” project — an initiative designed to protect China’s nuclear weapons laboratories and production plants from potential strikes by the United States or the Soviet Union. According to US experts, the facilities are now producing plutonium cores for nuclear warheads.

“There’s been evolution at all of these sites, but broadly speaking, that change accelerated starting from 2019,” the newspaper quoted geospatial intelligence expert Renny Babiarz as saying. In his assessment, the architecture of the complex in Pingtong is comparable to that of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States. Meanwhile, in Zitong, newly built bunkers and fortified walls are likely being used to test chemical compounds that detonate to create the conditions necessary for a chain reaction in nuclear materials.

According to the latest annual assessment by the US Department of Defense, by the end of 2024, China possessed more than 600 nuclear warheads, and that number is projected to reach 1,000 by 2030. Washington is seriously concerned about how a larger and more modern arsenal could alter China’s behaviour — particularly with regard to Taiwan, the publication notes.

By Vugar Khalilov