Washington has accused China of significantly expanding its nuclear arsenal and reiterated claims that China has carried out clandestine nuclear tests. The U.S. is calling for China to be included in any future arms control agreement following the expiration of New START earlier this month, the previous treaty between the U.S. and Russia.
During the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Christopher Yeaw, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for arms control and nonproliferation, stated that New START was flawed and failed to address China’s rapid and secretive nuclear weapons buildup. Yeaw claimed that China has substantially increased its nuclear arsenal without transparency or clear intentions.
Yeaw further mentioned that U.S. officials believe China could achieve nuclear parity with the U.S. within the next four to five years, although he did not specify what he meant by parity. According to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), both Russia and the U.S. possess over 5,000 nuclear weapons each. However, under the now-expired New START treaty, the U.S. and Russia were limited to 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads each, a threshold that China is reportedly nearing.