China expanding its nuclear capabilities faster than other countries, new report warns

China is undergoing “significant” expansion of its nuclear capabilities and could have as many intercontinental ballistic missiles as the United States or Russia within the next 6 years, according to a new report.

"China is expanding its nuclear arsenal faster than any other country," said Hans M. Kristensen, Associate Senior Fellow with SIPRI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme and Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) in a statement about the report. "But in nearly all of the nuclear-armed states, there are either plans or a significant push to increase nuclear forces."

According to an annual report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Sunday, China's nuclear arsenal has grown from 410 nuclear warheads in January 2023 to 500 as of January 2024.

"For the first time China is believed to have some warheads on high operational alert," read a news release about the report.

China "may also now be deploying a small number of warheads on missiles during peacetime" for the first time, the report said.

"Depending on how it decides to structure its forces, China could potentially have at least as many intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as either Russia or the USA by the turn of the decade, although its stockpile of nuclear warheads is still expected to remain much smaller than the stockpiles of either of those two countries," said the report.