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The Daily

Why Is China Expanding Its Nuclear Arsenal?

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2021

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For decades, nuclear weapons did not figure prominently in China’s military planning. However, recent satellite images suggest that the country may be looking to quintuple its nuclear arsenal. Why is China changing strategy now? Guest: David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times.

Transcript

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0:00.0

From New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro.

0:02.7

This is Italy.

0:04.2

Today, China appears to be undertaking the most significant expansion of its nuclear arsenal

0:18.8

in the country's history, and it seems to want the world to know about it.

0:25.8

The subrenate ever needs to be spoke with our colleague, David Sanger, about why that is,

0:31.8

and why it matters.

0:36.1

It's Thursday, July 29.

0:51.6

So David, you're on the show again, talking about China again.

0:55.8

Tell me about this latest development.

0:58.3

Well, over the weekend, we got some commercial satellite photographs that showed that the

1:05.2

Chinese were building silos all across the Western desert.

1:10.5

A top story of this hour, in a move to amplify its nuclear arsenal, reports reveal that China

1:17.2

is working to build more than 100 silos.

1:19.7

The pace of construction is startling.

1:22.4

This is certainly significant, if not the greatest expansion of China's nuclear arsenal.

1:28.5

These were holes in the ground, and to the uninitiated, they may not look much, but

1:34.8

these are nuclear silos, so they are places where you could, if you wanted, place nuclear

1:41.4

missiles that could launch at the United States or other targets.

1:47.4

And once you examine these images, what they showed was a field in which there were 110

1:55.4

or so silos going in place.

1:58.6

And the images showed that they were very neatly spaced apart, and that as they were finished,

2:03.8

they were being covered over by these essentially big inflatable tents that covered from satellites

...

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