Studies conducted at PRC military medical institutions discussed identifying, testing, and characterizing diverse families of potent toxins with dual-use applications….reports Asian Lite News
China has engaged in biological activities with potential dual-use applications, which raise concerns regarding its compliance with the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention (BWC) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the Pentagon said in its recent report.
Studies conducted at PRC military medical institutions discussed identifying, testing, and characterizing diverse families of potent toxins with dual-use applications, said The Pentagon’s report titled Military and Security Development Involving the People’s Republic of China, 2021.
Based on available information, the US cannot certify that Beijing has met its obligations under the CWC due to concerns regarding China’s research of pharmaceutical-based agents (PBAs) and toxins with potential dual-use applications, the 192-page report stated.
It also said that China is investing in, and expanding, the number of its land-, sea-, and air-based nuclear delivery platforms and constructing the infrastructure necessary to support this major expansion of its nuclear forces.
Beijing is also supporting this expansion by increasing its capacity to produce and separate plutonium by constructing fast breeder reactors and reprocessing facilities.
The US Department of Defense (DoD) annual report to Congress on military and security developments involving China was released on Wednesday. China has long viewed the US as a competitor and has characterised its view of strategic competition in terms of a rivalry among powerful nation-states, as well as a clash of opposing systems, according to the report.
China lodges protest
Beijing on Friday lodged a protest with Washington, over a Pentagon report on military development which claimed that China has expanded its nuclear force at a high pace.
“China has lodged solemn representations with the US over its groundless accusations about China’s nuclear arsenal in a Pentagon report and interference in China’s domestic affairs including Taiwan question,” said Wu Qian, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of National Defense.
“The Pentagon report is full of bias and distorts China’s defence and military strategies to hype the “China threat,” Wu was quoted as saying by Global Times.
The Pentagon’s report titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2021”, said that “the accelerating pace of the PRC’s nuclear expansion may enable the PRC to have up to 700 deliverable nuclear warheads by 2027.
“The PRC likely intends to have at least 1,000 warheads by 2030, exceeding the pace and size the DoD projected in 2020,” the report added.
China has possibly already established a nascent “nuclear triad” with the development of a nuclear-capable air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) and improvement of its ground and sea-based nuclear capabilities, the report read.
On Thursday, China Foreign Ministry said that the Pentagon report is full of prejudice and disregarded facts that claimed Beijing is rapidly expanding the number of its nuclear delivery platforms.
“US is hyping up China’s ‘nuclear threat’ is nothing but a trick to manipulate words and confuse the public,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Wang Wenbin. (ANI)
