Pictures taken of the Bohai Shipyard and Lonpo Naval Facility show China has been developing more nuclear submarine than previously believed. The feared increase in the communist state’s military resources comes a month after the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy said they believed that China was trying to bolster its nuclear capabilities. President Xi Jinping is thought to believe their current nuclear capabilities are too small.
He announced last year he wanted to massively boost China’s military capability.
However, according to the US Department of Defence and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), there are also fewer operational nuclear submarines than believed.
CSIS and the Pentagon claim China only has four ocean ready Jin- or 094-class submarines.
However, according to James Martin Centres of Nonproliferation Studies at the Middleburg Institute of International Studies at Monterey’s Catherine Dill, even this is not a worry.
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She explained that of those four submarines, two “appear not to be in operation”.
Both the Pentagon’s 2018 China Military Report and CSIS’ China Power group have said that all four of the submarines are active.
While China has around 186 land-based nuclear warheads, they are building new missiles for their submarines.
The US has also said it wants to build up its nuclear arsenal despite the country already having 6,450 warheads.
Tensions between the US and China have been continually increasing following US President Donald Trump declaring a trade war on Beijing.
This has caused continued escalation between the two countries.
Last month, a Chinese battleship nearly crashed into a US battleship in the South China Sea.
The US as also held joint military exercises that have angered Beijing.
The Chinese government views the South China Sea as being part of their territory despite multiple other countries also laying claim to the waters.