China may expand its nuclear capabilities: US report

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 28

China may expand its nuclear arsenal, while the nuclear missile capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) represent one strongest investment in warfare, says a report of the US Army.

Titled “Chinese tactics” dated August 2021, it is part of the “Army Techniques Publication” of the US Army and it has been put online in public.

The US report said China’s nuclear strategy could be described as a minimal deterrence approach, possessing only the nuclear capability necessary to deter a nuclear attack. “Future modernisation accompanied by an expansion of the nuclear force, however, is a clear possibility,” the US report said.

China is not a signatory to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and thus it is free to develop short and medium range missiles of all types.

The PLA employs several types of missiles as its primary precision deep-strike capability to target high-value assets, including air and seaports, supply depots, and command and communication nodes. These missiles represent a significant element of the Chinese strategy of denying access.

More-advanced missiles are designed specifically to engage hardened or mobile high-value assets, such as aircraft carriers and missile systems of other countries.

Chinese capabilities represent one of the PLA’s strongest investments in system warfare, as nuclear missiles asymmetrically destroy or neutralise assets that traditionally required force-on-force methods to effectively attack, said the US report.

The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) operates most of China’s nuclear arsenal through a fleet of 60-70 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBMs) – meaning with ranges in excess of 5,500 km.

China at present does not possess an immediate second-strike nuclear capability, said the US report.

In nuclear strategy ‘second strike capability’ is an assured capability of an armed force to respond to a nuclear attack with its own nuclear weapons. And a submarine launched nuclear weapons is considered the most reliable and potent form of second strike.

The US report argues that with China’s substantial investment in nuclear missile capabilities, it is unlikely that China will ever voluntarily downgrade its conventional missile-strike capability

“The PLARF’s conventional missile force is the world’s largest and among the world’s most technologically advanced and most capable,” said the report.