National Interest: A report reveals the size of China’s nuclear arsenal and contradicts the estimates of the Pentagon

China has a small nuclear arsenal, compared to the US nuclear arsenal, with the aim of convincing Washington that in the event of a preemptive nuclear attack, a small number of ICBMs can penetrate the US missile shield and carry out retaliatory strikes.

The nuclear countries in the world own about 14 thousand nuclear bombs, according to the statistics of 2019, reported by the American “Arms Control Association” website, whose estimates indicate that China has only 290 nuclear bombs, while the United States of America has 6185 nuclear bombs, according to American “National Interest” magazine.

Russia has the largest number of nuclear bombs in the world, as the number of nuclear warheads it possesses reaches 7,000 nuclear bombs.

In 2018, a report by the US website “Arms Control” stated that China possessed about 270 nuclear bombs, which is less than the estimate for 2019, which indicates that it has 290 bombs.

But the report of the US Department of Defense, “the Pentagon” in September 2020, talked about China’s efforts to double its nuclear arsenal during the next decade, indicating that this includes nuclear warheads for ICBMs that can hit the United States of America.

The “Pentagon” report revealed that its estimates indicate that the number of China’s nuclear bombs is estimated at 200.

Defense News magazine says, in a report issued last September, that the number of active warheads in the United States is estimated at 3,800 bombs, which means that there is a large gap between the capabilities of China and the US capabilities in the nuclear weapons, which both countries possess, even after China doubles the number of its nuclear bombs.

But a recent report issued by a US research center indicates that the number of China’s nuclear bombs is estimated at 350 nuclear bombs, which is a much greater number than the number contained in the US Defense Department report last September.

The American magazine says that the estimates for the number of Chinese nuclear bombs include warheads for piercing missiles, ground missiles in underground silos and submarine missiles, in addition to nuclear bombs that are launched from strategic bombers from the air.