China's nuclear arms buildup 'inconsistent' with no-first-use policy, StratCom chief says

China’s nuclear weapons buildup is “inconsistent” with a declared no-first-use policy, making American nuclear modernization efforts more urgent, U.S. Strategic Command’s Adm. Charles Richard said Monday.

“It's not where they are, it's where they're going,” the combatant commander told Pentagon reporters, warning that China intends to double its nuclear warheads by 2030.

“When China sets its mind to something, they are very impressive in their ability to go accomplish it,” he said. “We're going to have to move equally as fast in order to pace that threat.”

Nuclear modernization figures prominently in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. Differing versions have passed both houses of Congress and await reconciliation.

Richard referenced the recently released Pentagon China Military Power Report that speaks about China harnessing 200 nuclear weapons within five years and doubling that number by the end of the decade.

In Monday’s briefing, the commander overseeing America’s nuclear triad warned that China has streamlined bureaucracy and demonstrated that it can quickly create the industrial base to meet its ambitions.

“We are going into a very different world,” Richard said of America's imperative to deter two nuclear-armed great power rivals, China and Russia.

“China, in particular, is developing a stack of capabilities that, to my mind, is increasingly inconsistent with a stated no-first-use policy," he said.

The Military Power Report also noted that China is developing its own nuclear triad.

“China’s nuclear forces will significantly evolve over the next decade as it modernizes, diversifies, and increases the number of its land-, sea-, and air-based nuclear delivery platforms,” the report states.

New developments also indicate that China is moving to a launch-on-warning posture with an expanded silo-based force.

China can already hit U.S. with ballistic missiles

With a submarine force of 65 to 70 submersibles roaming the Pacific, Richard said China has already reached a “watershed” moment.

“China now has the capability … to directly threaten our homeland from a ballistic missile submarine,” he said. “I get apprehensive that we are not fully conscious as a nation of the threats that we face.”

Chief among the dangers in China's military ambition is a government system that allows it to build its capabilities quickly, the commander said.

Richard used the example of the Chinese Coast Guard, which was only stood up in 2013 and now fields 255 ships.

Separately Monday morning, Air Force chief of staff Gen. Charles Brown said China is on pace to exceed American, ally, and partner platforms in the Pacific by 2025.

“We are outnumbered,” he told a virtual gathering of the Air Force Association. “If we don’t start doing things a bit faster, we’re going to be behind.”

Brown called for the elimination of bureaucratic hurdles so the United States can make acquisitions faster and keep up with great power competitors.

Richard said there is no more time to wait.

“As a military commander, what I look at more is another nation's capabilities, less about what their stated intentions are, and I see China developing a stack of capabilities,” he said. “We have to go recapitalize our strategic triad.”

He added: “There’s no margin left.”