The Pentagon has sharply increased its estimate of China's projected nuclear weapons arsenal over coming years, saying Beijing could have 700 warheads by 2027 and possibly 1000 by 2030.
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While the numbers would still be significantly smaller than the current US nuclear stockpile, they represent a significant change in the US projection from just last year.
Then, the Pentagon warned the Chinese arsenal would top 400 by the end of the decade.
Washington has repeatedly called on China to join it and Russia in a new arms control treaty.
In its wide-ranging annual report to Congress on China's military, the Pentagon reiterated concern about increasing pressure on self-ruled Taiwan, an island China sees as a breakaway province, and China's chemical and biological programs and technological advancements.
But the report put particular emphasis on China's growing nuclear arsenal.
"Over the next decade, the PRC aims to modernise, diversify, and expand its nuclear forces," the report said, referring to the People's Republic of China.
It added that China had started building at least three intercontinental ballistic missile silo fields.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said whether China follows through with these estimates will depend "in great part" on the policies and actions of the US.
"The potential for China to increase its arsenal to these levels underscores the urgent necessity of pragmatic bilateral or multilateral talks to reduce nuclear risks," Kimball said.
China says its arsenal is dwarfed by those of the US and Russia, and that it is ready for dialogue, but only if Washington reduces its nuclear stockpile to China's level.
The US has a stockpile of 3750 nuclear warheads, of which 1389 were deployed as of September 1.
At a regular press briefing in Beijing on Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin called the report "full of prejudice".
Australian Associated Press
