Nuclear arms increasing globally, but Western media sees only China

In its annual report published on Monday, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said the world's nuclear weapons states are pushing to expand their nuclear arsenals, warning that the number of nuclear weapons that can be deployed is increasing.

Expectedly, the Western media, which has always hyped China's "military threat", blamed China for the rise in the number of nuclear warheads. The Voice of America even sensationalized it by using a headline saying "China expands nuclear arsenal amid rising global tensions". The report says several countries, notably China, increased their nuclear arsenals last year as geopolitical tensions were rising.

The SIPRI report summarizes the changing trend of global nuclear arsenals, but it does not name China alone. Its wording is different from that used by US media outlets, which seem to be singling out China. Although The Guardian report did not seem to target China, it carried a picture of missiles on public display during Chinese military parades.

As a big country with a vast territory and many core interests, China undoubtedly needs sophisticated weapons to ensure its national security. However, China has always maintained a restrained and limited nuclear deterrence capability. In fact, despite being a large country, China does not believe in the bigger the better when it comes to its nuclear arsenal. An appropriate increase in its nuclear arsenal is not only acceptable, but also reasonable, legitimate and necessary. After all, from the perspective of military equipment development, it is necessary for China to develop a certain number of modern delivery vehicles, which requires corresponding modern warheads.

However, it should be noted that from the perspective of the international environment and regional situation, it is a general trend that nuclear powers, including China, will modernize and update their nuclear arsenals. At the same time, the scale of their nuclear arsenals will not only increase, but also realize the replacement of old models with modernized and updated ones.

It is not objective that Western think tanks and research reports blindly exaggerate the "expansion" of China's nuclear arsenal. They only presuppose an outcome, and then use the so-called objective algorithms and data to deduce the "conclusions" they want to get, and try to use these conclusions to force China to sit at the arms reduction negotiation table.