Australia Concerned About CCP Military, Nuclear Build-Up Without Strategic Reassurance

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Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles has flagged concerns about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military build-up without strategic reassurance.

“China has engaged in the biggest conventional military build-up since the end of the Second World War. That’s a big thing to say,” Marles said at the Defending Australia Summit.

“Bigger than at any point during the Cold War. Now, to properly nail that down, it is also engaging in a nuclear build-up as well, not on the same scale as what we saw during the Cold War, but in conventional terms, bigger.”

Marles avoided answering directly whether the CCP was a military threat to Australia, but pointed to the lack of reassurance.

“It is the fact of a country which is engaging in a military build-up of that scale. ... Every country has a right to properly invest in its own defences. But what’s really important is that you provide strategic reassurance to your neighbours and to the world about what that’s about,” he said.

Marles also noted Australia’s important geographic position in the global power dynamics, being a Western nation in the heart of the Asia-Pacific region.

In a separate speech at the same event, Marles said Australia’s risks were not so much the “invasion of the continent,” but the strategic risk of disruption to sea lines and coercion. He said Australia was fortunate to be an island nation surrounded by oceans.

“We are deeply reliant on our sea lines of communication. The supply of the country—almost all of our liquid fuels are imported by sea, but also through export revenues,” he said.

“So that is our strategic risk. It’s the disruption of those sea lines ... and the stability of the region in which we live.”

Meanwhile, Acting Shadow Treasurer James Paterson said Marles needs to focus on the “incredibly significant” job ahead of him.

“We have urgent tasks ahead to make sure that we are ready for AUKUS, including making sure that HMAS Stirling in Western Australia is ready to receive the rotational forces of the U.S. and UK submarines in just two years’ time. And there are grave concerns that we’ve fallen behind on that.” Paterson said on ABC Radio National Breakfast.

He reiterated that the Coalition was committed to lifting Australia’s defence spending to 3 percent of GDP.

In comparison, the United States’ total nuclear inventory is an estimated 5,177.

Beijing is also on the verge of completing the construction of 350 new ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) silos.

An ICBM is a missile that delivers nuclear or conventional warheads over long distances.

“Depending on how it decides to structure its forces, China could potentially have at least as many ICBMs as either Russia or the USA by the turn of the decade,” the report states.

However, even if China reaches 1,500 warheads by 2035, it would only be a third of that held by Russia and the United States.

“Nearly all of these warheads belonged to Russia or the USA, but China may now keep some warheads on missiles during peacetime,” the report said.

The total global estimated stockpile of nuclear warheads was about 12,200 as of January 2025. Of these, 9,600 were military stockpiles while the rest were either deployed or retired.

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