China’s defense minister this week confirmed that the People’s Liberation Army is expanding its nuclear arsenal, but played down the development that a U.S. nuclear commander called a “strategic breakout” comparable to the Soviet Union of the 1960s.
PLA Gen. Wei Fenghe is the first Chinese official to address reports that Beijing is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal, long dwarfed by those of the U.S. and Russia, including the deployment of an estimated 350 multi-warhead DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles in western China. Despite U.S. concerns about the build-up, Gen. Wei said the nuclear expansion was normal.
“China is developing nuclear capabilities at a moderate and appropriate level,” he told reporters Sunday in Singapore.