China is investing more money to build nuclear submarines and stay ahead of the US and other enemies. This is an assessment done by an arms control think tank which believes that China is leaning towards keeping its nuclear weapons at sea so that their destruction can be prevented. China might not build more atomic weapons, however, it might develop more submarines to carry out a larger and much more effective second strike capability under the Pacific Ocean.
China has a straightforward rule regarding Nuclear weapons which is that China will not use nuclear weapons first. China has 250 to 300 atomic warheads while America has 6,450. To retaliate, China’s nuclear arsenal must survive a surprise attack. Most of the nukes in Beijing are fitted to intercontinental ballistic missiles are in protected silos and on mobile launchers. 48 of the warheads are fitted to submarine-launched ballistic missiles of the Type 094A or the Jin-class. China has four Jin submarines, and each of them is equipped with twelve launch silos for JL-2 ballistic missiles. This ensures that between refuelings, drydock time, coming or going from patrol areas, the Navy can keep at least one submarine on station with nuclear weapons ready at it all the time.
A report from the Carnegie Center for Global Policy states that Beijing is getting an unknown number of new nuclear submarines. The exact number of the submarines is unknown however a nuclear power needs four submarines to keep one on the station. China will need to double its missile sub fleet from four to right to see improvements in the number of missiles which it keeps at sea. The author of the article states that you cannot just take a missile off a DF-31 land-based missile and place it on a JL-2 submarine-based missile.
China can remove the warhead and reuse the nuclear material for a new missile, or it can decide to process more nuclear material to build more warheads. China stopped producing material when it had enough for an estimated 300 warheads. There is undoubtedly something which is making China’s policymakers insecure about their nuclear deterrent. The country has concerns that US ballistic missile defenses in Alaska which are meant to protect their country from a handful of launches from North Korea and Iran can also be scaled up to stop a counterattack from China. The US is also planning to build a hundred or more B-21 Raider bombers who have the mission to hunt mobile missile launchers.