China 'building up nuclear arsenal' as top politician issues grim WW3 warning

Xi Jinping is building up China's military might (Image: Getty)

China's rapid build up of its nuclear and military might is creating "security anxiety", a senior Western politican warned. Beijing has continued to spend billions on defence spending, as it overhauls and modernises its military.

In particular it has beefed up its nuclear capabilities and is now believed to possess more than 600 warheads, according to the US State Department. This is almost triple the amount Beijing's army was estimated to have in 2020. Defence spending surged in 2024, with official Chinese data indicating a 7.2 percent increase.

Xi Jinping wants a 'world class military' (Image: Getty)

This is the third consecutive year of growth exceeding 7 percent and is causing considerable jitters in many neighbouring countries - chief among them Australia.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told reporters in Jakarta that the ongoing pace of China's nuclear build up was deeply troubling and could force the government to rethink its defence strategies.

“I mean, we’ve made no secret of the fact that we have a security anxiety in relation to China that’s principally driven by the very significant conventional military build-up that China is engaging in, and, for that matter, a nuclear build-up that China is engaging in,” he said.

“We’ve made that clear to China itself.”

China is likely to have around 1,5000 nuclear warheads by 2025, according to a 2022 Pentagon report.

At the same time Beijing is rapidly developing new systems capable of launching even more lethal nukes.

Additional advanced nuclear delivery systems likely under development include strategic hypersonic glide vehicles and fractional orbital bombardment systems, the latter at least partially demonstrated in a 2021 test.

Australia's army chief David Johnston warned on Wednesday that the country must develop its ability to launch combat operations from its own territory.

“That is a very different way, almost since the Second World War, of how we think of national resilience and preparedness," he told a major defence conference.

President Xi Jinping has made clear that a “world class military” is essential to his vision of China’s national rejuvenation by 2049.

In 2015, he initiated the most sweeping overhaul of the People’s Liberation Army since the 1950s.

The reforms introduced the PLA Rocket Force, now responsible for China’s nuclear and conventional missiles, and the Strategic Support Force (SSF), tasked with space, cyber and electronic warfare capabilities.