China dismisses Pentagon report on pace of nuclear weapons development

BEIJING: China's defence ministry has dismissed a Pentagon report about the pace of its nuclear weapons programme as unfair gesticulation and speculation.

The Pentagon said last month that China would have a stock of 1,500 nuclear warheads by the year 2035 if it continues with its current pace of nuclear buildup.

The figure underscores mounting US concerns about China's intentions for its expanding nuclear arsenal, even though the projections do not suggest that China is accelerating the pace of its already-brisk warhead development.

China's defence ministry said that the United States should reflect on its own nuclear policy as it has the world's largest nuclear arsenal, and that the United States was gesticulating and absurdly guessing about the modernisation of China's nuclear forces.

The United States was vigorously developing and attempting to deploy front-line tactical nuclear weapons, had reduced the threshold for deploying nuclear weapons and was conducting nuclear proliferation through its security partnership with Britain and Australia, it said.