China building 80-plus launch pads near nuclear silos

China is constructing a sprawling network of launch pads, bunkers, and communications nodes near its nuclear missile silos in the remote deserts of its northwest, according to a Reuters analysis of satellite imagery published on Thursday.reuters+1

The images reveal more than 80 pads that could be used by China's expanding fleet of mobile missile launchers and air-defense batteries, along with facilities that may support electronic warfare, satellite communication, and command operations, according to three security experts who reviewed the imagery for Reuters.yahoo

A Second-Strike Architecture

The construction, which has not been previously reported, represents a major expansion of fortified infrastructure designed to protect and sustain China's ground-based nuclear forces. The new infrastructure is primarily focused on two octagon-shaped facilities built over the past six years in eastern Xinjiang, near the Hami nuclear silo field.reuters+1

Security analysts told Reuters that the pads may serve for deploying mobile air-defense missiles, electronic warfare systems, or road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile launchers. Collectively, the network signals a notable enhancement of Beijing's second-strike capability — the ability to retaliate after absorbing an initial nuclear attack — reflecting the intensifying nuclear rivalry with the United States.yahoo

Escalating Nuclear Competition

The revelation comes just one day after the International Institute for Strategic Studies warned that any U.S.-China conflict over Taiwan would risk nuclear escalation, with both militaries likely to conduct sweeping operations aimed at disrupting each other's command and communication systems.reuters

China has been building its nuclear arsenal at a pace unmatched by any other nuclear power. A Pentagon report released in December found that Beijing had likely loaded more than 100 solid-fueled DF-31 ICBMs into silo fields near its border with Mongolia. The Defense Department projects China will field more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030, up from roughly 600 in 2024.koreajoongangdaily.joins+3

From Minimal Deterrence to Parity

The construction near the Hami and Yumen silo fields — first identified by researchers in 2021 when approximately 250 new silos were discovered — marks a departure from China's decades-long posture of minimal nuclear deterrence. Beijing maintains it will keep nuclear capabilities "at the minimum level required for national security" and continues to assert a no-first-use policy, even as the scale of its buildup suggests otherwise to Western analysts.armscontrol+1

The Arms Control Association reported in January that China had deployed ICBMs in roughly a third of its new silos, a milestone that transforms what were once empty shells into an operational deterrent force spanning thousands of square kilometers of desert.armscontrol