2,350 or 3,500 - How Many Nukes Warheads Does China Have?

[marshall]

Minimum 2000 Maximum 5000

The 400 figure just doesn't make any sense as the article suggests.

If you try hard enough, maybe you will be able to convince the Americans that China really does have 3000, 5000, etc, etc warheads and convince them and their allies to set up an anti-ballistic missile system to surround China. My first question when I read that article was, where is the proof of these THOUSANDS of miles of tunnels? I've read, heard and seen tunnels but nothing remotely approaching THOUSANDS of miles of the sort they describe here. People shouldn't accept unproven "truths" that haven't been proven and use them to promulgate unlikely situations that are pure speculation. There's a difference between educated estimates and wishful thinking.

 

[anon45]

an Interesting article China’s Underground Great Wall | The Diplomat

 

[lem34]

Immaterial of how many nukes the chinese have I think its brilliant strategy of the chinese to keep the world guessing.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

If you try hard enough, maybe you will be able to convince the Americans that China really does have 3000, 5000, etc, etc warheads and convince them and their allies to set up an anti-ballistic missile system to surround China. My first question when I read that article was, where is the proof of these THOUSANDS of miles of tunnels? I've read, heard and seen tunnels but nothing remotely approaching THOUSANDS of miles of the sort they describe here. People shouldn't accept unproven "truths" that haven't been proven and use them to promulgate unlikely situations that are pure speculation. There's a difference between educated estimates and wishful thinking.

Not my wishful thinking, but many military insiders do know how our nuclear strategy works.

Few hundred nukes and dozen of ICBMs cannot be considered as a reliable deterrence.

The Americans are free to believe whatever they want to believe. Who cares?

 

[lem34]

Not my wishful thinking, but many military insiders do know how our nuclear strategy works.

Few hundred nukes and dozen of ICBMs cannot be considered as a reliable deterrence.

The Americans are free to believe whatever they want to believe. Who cares?

What I think is funny that the same people who are saying that china has only 400 odd nukes claim pakistan have 200 plus at this rate pakistan will have more than china if we were to take notice of them lol. Maybe pakistan can assist china lol

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

What I think is funny that the same people who are saying that china has only 400 odd nukes claim pakistan have 200 plus at this rate pakistan will have more than china if we were to take notice of them lol. Maybe pakistan can assist china lol

There are even some western source put China's nuclear stockpiles as low as 20, this is the typical western demonization tactic.

Allowing people to believe the threat of your opponent, meanwhile also to convince their people that it can never harm the US.

 

[JustForFun]

Well, the asteroid that hit Earth 65 million ago had created far more powerful destruction than any nuclear weapon, yet it did not extinguish the life on Earth.

After a nuclear winter, more than half of the human population would die, and the rest would survive and get mutated.

It's not about tonnage, but about spread. 1000 1 megaton bombs evenly spread do a lot more damage than 1 1000 megaton bomb. The biggest immidiate killers of a bomb (neutron bombs not included) are pressure and heat. Both are r^2 or r^3 (can't remember which one).
So 70.000 nukes => 2200 km^2 area of effect per nuke needed. => Radius = 26km.
Evenly spread 70000 1 MT nukes (conflagration 10 km, blast radius 2.4 km) would burn 1/4 of the planet and flatten 1/100 of earth.
Evenly spread 70000 20 MT nukes (conflagration 30 km, blast radius 6.4 km) would burn the entire planet and flatten 1/16 of earth.

Mind you, only 10% of earths land surface area is arable, so 70000 1 MT nukes would do a good job killing off the human race.
At 20 MT/nuke, we're toast however you look at it.

Effects of nuclear explosions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Land use statistics by country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[illusion8]

i cannot believe my eyes guys, The Chinese are gearing up to annihilate the US with 5000 nukes. and, here we are both Ind and Pak arguing about our few hundred baby nukes. Man this is sick.

 

[marshall]

an Interesting article China’s Underground Great Wall | The Diplomat

That article is just another speculation that there are a speculated THOUSANDS of miles of tunnel. There's no proof and the analysts use the precedent of Beijing city tunnels as their rationale. Honestly, I find it to be a joke to insinuate there are THOUSANDS of miles of tunnels large enough to house nuclear missiles as granite bunkers. It takes years to create the tunnels for a typical city subway system which engineers usually bore through clay and line with concrete because it is faster and easier. Now these analysts are seriously suggesting China could do this through pure granite for thousands of miles for much larger tunnels able to house infrastructure capable of transporting a network of nuke warheads over continental distances??? It's pure stupidity and the sort of nonsense used by American Cold War mongers to have an excuse to claim China has thousands of nuke missiles to justify their military aggression.

 

[JohnyD]

the exact figure is 897...

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

That article is just another speculation that there are a speculated THOUSANDS of miles of tunnel. There's no proof and the analysts use the precedent of Beijing city tunnels as their rationale. Honestly, I find it to be a joke to insinuate there are THOUSANDS of miles of tunnels large enough to house nuclear missiles as granite bunkers. It takes years to create the tunnels for a typical city subway system which engineers usually bore through clay and line with concrete because it is faster and easier. Now these analysts are seriously suggesting China could do this through pure granite for thousands of miles for much larger tunnels able to house infrastructure capable of transporting a network of nuke warheads over continental distances??? It's pure stupidity and the sort of nonsense used by American Cold War mongers to have an excuse to claim China has thousands of nuke missiles to justify their military aggression.

This underground great wall was confirmed CCTV, and so stop being denial.

 

[marshall]

This underground great wall was confirmed CCTV, and so stop being denial.

That news is absolute BS. It does not make any sense because tunneling thousands of miles of tunnel hundreds of meters under granite mountains would take many decades using the most advanced tunneling equipment and having unlimited budget. Having underground granite bunkers is NOT THE SAME has saying those tunnels are 5000kms long. It is a very important distinction. They showed a section of tunnel and then claimed it stretched for thousands of miles more while claiming work only began in 1995. You've got to be kidding me. It takes ~4-5 years to tunnel through what is usually clay for city subway tunnels which are alot smaller and shallower than huge tunnels bored in granite hundreds of meters deep where you'd start hitting water tables. In short, it is IMPOSSIBLE to have created this mythical 5000km Great Wall tunnel system from 1995...absolutely impossible. The entire story is a deception to act as part of China's nuclear deterrence. China knows opportunists in the American neocon camp have the mentality that they could win an all out nuclear war if launching a preemptive strike.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

That news is absolute BS. It does not make any sense because tunneling thousands of miles of tunnel hundreds of meters under granite mountains would take many decades using the most advanced tunneling equipment and having unlimited budget. Having underground granite bunkers is NOT THE SAME has saying those tunnels are 5000kms long. It is a very important distinction. They showed a section of tunnel and then claimed it stretched for thousands of miles more while claiming work only began in 1995. You've got to be kidding me. It takes ~4-5 years to tunnel through what is usually clay for city subway tunnels which are alot smaller and shallower than huge tunnels bored in granite hundreds of meters deep where you'd start hitting water tables. In short, it is IMPOSSIBLE to have created this mythical 5000km Great Wall tunnel system from 1995...absolutely impossible. The entire story is a deception to act as part of China's nuclear deterrence China knows opportunists in the American neocon camp have the mentality that they could win an all out nuclear war if launching a preemptive strike.

We started this project from late 1970s or early 1980s, that was hardly a secret for anyone who lived in China during that time.

 

[marshall]

We started this project from late 1970s or early 1980s, that was hardly a secret for anyone who lived in China during that time.

That is not true. When this story broke, it was a surprise to everybody. If it was so widely known in China in the 1970s, 1980s, it would have been well known before China officially announced it. Besides, China's officials stated it was only started in 1995. A project of this scale is so big and would involve so many workers and consume so much money that it could not be kept secret, but it was. How is that possible given high resolution military spy satellites? It just doesn't make sense.

 

[LetsGetRowdy]

That is not true. When this story broke, it was a surprise to everybody. If it was so widely known in China in the 1970s, 1980s, it would have been well known before China officially announced it. Besides, China's officials stated it was only started in 1995. A project of this scale is so big and would involve so many workers and consume so much money that it could not be kept secret, but it was. How is that possible given high resolution military spy satellites? It just doesn't make sense.

lol isn't it just incredible. truly an extraordinary feat of engineering.