A tough read into the American US Department of Defense's perspective on the People's Republic of China's security and military developments. This report was made to the United States congress in 2023.
Page 104, paragraph 3, 4:
" - DoD estimates that the PRC will have have over 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030, much of which will be deployed at higher readiness levels and will continue growing its force to 2035 in line with its goal of ensuring PLA modernization is “basically complete” that year, which serves as an important milestone on the road to Xi’s goal of a “world class” military by 2049.
- The PRC probably will use its new fast breeder reactors and reprocessing facilities to produce plutonium for its nuclear weapons program, despite publicly maintaining these technologies are intended for peaceful purposes. "
Page 115; "...The PRC continues to engage in biological activities with dual-use applications, which raise concerns regarding its compliance with the BWC. In addition, the United States does not have sufficient information to determine whether China eliminated its assessed historical biological warfare (BW) program, which the United States assesses that the PRC possessed from the 1950s to at least the late 1980s.
The PRC acceded to the BWC in 1984 and regularly submits to confidence-building measures (CBM) under the BWC; however, the PRC’s CBM reporting has never acknowledged its past offensive program.
As part of its historical BW program, the PRC had reported weaponized ricin, botulinum toxins, and the causative agents of anthrax, cholera, plague, and tularemia.
In addition, available information on studies conducted at PRC military medical institutions indicates that researchers identify, test, and characterize diverse families of potent toxins with dual-use applications.
The PRC’s chemical and biotechnology infrastructures are sufficient to research, develop, and produce some chemical and biological agents or toxins on a large scale. "
The original report can be found here:
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