The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is expanding its nuclear force, has increased military pressure against Taiwan and has strengthened its ties with Russia over the past year, according to a December 2024 United States Defense Department report that detailed actions accelerating key areas of conflict with the U.S.
The report, however, also noted that the recent rash of corruption allegations within the CCP’s Central Military Commission (CMC), which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is hurting Beijing’s military growth and could slow its campaign to modernize.

The impact, said a senior U.S. defense official, is a bit of a mixed bag because while there has been progress in some programs, the CCP has slid back in others.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the U.S. assessment, warned that Beijing is working toward developing a more diverse and technologically sophisticated nuclear force. While the expected number of nuclear warheads has maintained consistent growth, the CCP is broadening its targeting abilities.

Beijing is going to be able to go after more and different types of targets, do greater damage and have more options for multiple rounds of counterstrikes, the official said. The U.S. is urging the PLA to be more transparent about its nuclear program, while also warning that Washington will defend its Allies and Partners and take appropriate steps in response. The U.S.’s national defense strategy is built around the People’s Republic of China (PRC) being the greatest security challenge for the U.S., and the threat from Beijing influences how the U.S. military is equipped and organized for the future.

According to the report, which provides the annual U.S. assessment of the CCP’s military power and is required by Congress, Beijing had more than 600 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2024, and the U.S. expects it will have more than 1,000 by 2030.

The Chinese Embassy, in response, said Beijing has always “firmly adhered to a nuclear strategy of self-defense,” follows the no-first-use nuclear policy and maintains its nuclear capabilities at the minimum level required for national security.

Liu Pengyu, the embassy spokesman, said such annual reports by the U.S. Defense Department are “filled with ‘Cold-War’ thinking and zero-sum game mentality, which China firmly opposes.”

The U.S. government has worked to maintain a balance with the PRC, building up the U.S. military presence in the Indo-Pacific region to be ready to counter Beijing while also encouraging increased communications between the two countries at the diplomatic and military levels.

That uptick in talks has coincided with a decrease in coercive and risky intercepts of U.S. aircraft since late 2023, compared with the previous two years. The PLA still, however, conducts what the U.S. military considers “unsafe” flights near U.S. and Allied forces in the region.

Corruption within the PLA has resulted in at least 15 high-ranking officials being ousted in a major shakeup of China’s defense establishment. “This wave of corruption touches every service in the PLA, and it may have shaken Beijing’s confidence,” the report said.

In June 2024, Beijing announced that former defense minister Li Shangfu and his predecessor, Wei Fenghe, were expelled from the ruling CCP and accused of corruption. Miao Hua, another senior official, was suspended in November 2024 and put under investigation, according to the CCP’s defense ministry. He was director of the political work department for the CMC.

Additionally, the U.S. report pointed to a persistent increased military presence by the PLA around Taiwan, the self-governing island that the PRC claims as its own. It said the PLA Navy has been in the region more and that there have been increased crossings into the island’s air defense identification zone and major military exercises in the area.

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