China Growing Nuclear Stockpile at Fastest Rate, Says Report

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Jun 18, 2025 - 10:11 Updated: Jun 18, 2025 - 10:04
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China Growing Nuclear Stockpile at Fastest Rate, Says Report
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China is still increasing the number of its nuclear warheads faster than any other country in the world, according to a new report published on June 16.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which publishes a long-running yearbook on armaments, arms control, and conflicts, estimated that China has at least 600 nuclear warheads as of January 2025.

The think tank also reiterated its earlier estimate that China could catch up or surpass the United States or Russia by 2030 in terms of the number of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM). The size of China’s nuclear arsenal remains a fraction of U.S. and Russian inventories, which include 5,177 and 5,459 warheads, respectively, according to the report.

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China is still increasing the number of its nuclear warheads faster than any other country in the world, according to a new report published on June 16.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which publishes a long-running yearbook on armaments, arms control, and conflicts, estimated that China has at least 600 nuclear warheads as of January 2025.

The think tank also reiterated its earlier estimate that China could catch up or surpass the United States or Russia by 2030 in terms of the number of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM). The size of China’s nuclear arsenal remains a fraction of U.S. and Russian inventories, which include 5,177 and 5,459 warheads, respectively, according to the report.

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In January, the U.S. Department of Defense published a similar estimate in its annual report on China’s military capabilities, saying China’s stockpile had grown to more than 600 operational nuclear warheads by mid-2024.

The Pentagon previously estimated that China’s stockpile could increase to more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030, and to 1,500 by 2035.

According to SIPRI, between January 2023 and January 2024, the Chinese regime might have deployed 24 warheads on missiles for the first time; the number remained the same in the past year.

In 2025, the United States had 1,770 warheads deployed on missiles and Russia had 1,718; the United Kingdom had 120 and France had 280 deployed warheads, SIPRI said.

The think tank said the United States and Russia are both likely to increase their deployments in the coming years by loading more warheads onto each missile and loading empty launchers.

“Nuclear advocates in the USA are pushing for these steps as a reaction to China’s new nuclear deployments,” it said.

SIPRI also said the Chinese regime had built around 350 new ICBM silos by January.

“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,” SIPRI said.

In 2023, then-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Beijing had been “rapidly growing its nuclear arsenal without any transparency about its capabilities,” and that the alliance should “push back against efforts that risk undermining the existing nonproliferation framework, including the treaty on the provision of nuclear weapons.”
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