Beijing's missile stockpile growing

The Australian

CHINA has begun expanding its nuclear warhead and strategic missile capacity at a pace not seen for 20 years. The build-up has begun as North Korea joins the ranks of nuclear-armed powers and Japan's Government is under pressure to respond with more aggressive missile deployment. Jane's Intelligence Review, the most authoritative publication of global strategic analysis, said that new DigitalGlobal imagery revealed Beijing was developing up to five intercontinental nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. The growth of China's space launch centre at Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, 400km southwest of Beijing, "appears to be a key factor in China's long-range ballistic missile force modernisation". Taiyuan has a new liquid-fuelled rocket launch facility to shoot vehicles into space, but Jane's Intelligence Review says the centre also hosts solid-fuelled rocket facilities containing assembly buildings similar to those used at a People's Liberation Army rocket force base in Luoyang, Henan province. The editor of Jane's Intelligence Review, Christian Le Miere, said: "Within 10 years, China may have a much larger total missile force, although not as large as Russia or the US, and it will utilise a range of modern technologies to ensure the effective retaliatory purpose of China's long-range nuclear missile forces." This expansion, he said, "stands in contrast to the current nuclear reduction talks being pursued by the US and Russia, but Beijing is unlikely to enter into any such negotiations". "For China, its nuclear forces remain small enough to justify the continued rejection of appeals to join nuclear arms reduction talks that it considers binding and verifiable on nuclear missile reduction pacts." Beijing's consistent opening position on disarmament has been that it is up to the US and Russia to begin eliminating their nuclear weapons first. The Federation of American Scientists estimates that China, which conducted its first nuclear test in 1964, holds about 240 nuclear warheads, the US 9400 and Russia 13,000. China is aiming to develop an anti-ballistic missile system by 2025, and Jane's said it would soon deploy its new submarine launched ballistic missiles to offer greater flexibility. Documents mistakenly tabled in the Australian parliament on May 14 by Foreign Minister Stephen Smith showed that Australia planned to increase its uranium sales to China - provided it was not used in Beijing's expanding nuclear weapons program. The US Defence Department has said that China is the only major nuclear power now expanding its force. Japan's Prime Minister, Taro Aso, warned at a Berlin university earlier this month: "Unfortunately, the security environment in northeast Asia is becoming increasingly tough. "North Korea is pushing ahead with development of nuclear weapons and missiles ... and China's defence expenditure has logged two-digit growth for the 20th consecutive year, and its contents lack transparency. The country is also proceeding with modernisation of (its) nuclear arsenal."

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