BUCKLE UP: China’s Build Up of Nuclear Forces. “China is currently embarked on a massive build-up of nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles. From a low-level force structure designed to support its strategy of minimum deterrence, China is now striving to establish a nuclear warfighting capability that would enable it to bolster its massive conventional forces with a substantial theater nuclear force, backed up by expanded nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). China’s objective, in the event of war, is to win a quick victory with its conventional forces, and to deter the use of U.S. nuclear weapons by threatening the employment of its large theater nuclear forces.”

The Pentagon called it a “strategic breakout” five years ago, and Beijing’s pace has only accelerated since then.