The tiny island feared to be at the centre of China’s nuclear arms race | World | News

Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin has warned that the world has entered a “third nuclear age” with a rising threat from China.

The country is said to be rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal and capabilities, with many expecting them to soon catch up with the world’s pre-eminent nuclear superpowers – Russia and the United States.

Admiral Radakin pointed out that China’s ascension to nuclear superpower status “poses a two-peer challenge to the United States”, given the help that Russia has given China in its pursuit.

He added: “In one group are those authoritarian states seeking to challenge the global rules. In the case of Russia, it is because Putin believes in a historic fiction.

“In the case of China, it is seeking to reshape the rules around its own interests.”

Over the last decade, Beijing has made moves to transform its nuclear capabilities, modernising its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), which can be used to launch nuclear attacks, and is in the process of connecting two “fast breeder” nuclear reactors to the power grid.

A fast breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that produces more nuclear fuel than it uses while generating electricity.

It is believed that the island of Changbiao in the Eastern China Sea, possesses one, while it has been reported that intelligence sources believe a second is under construction.

Until recently, the island was largely uninhabited but rapid construction work has seen undergrowth stripped away, trees chopped down and several installations built, it has been claimed.

The breeders are designed to extend the supply of nuclear fuel for power generation and can eventually lead to the production of ultra-pure plutonium-239, which is ideal for use in nuclear weapons.

A report by the US Defence Department predicts that China is set to use its new CFR-600 reactors, alongside other nuclear reprocessing facilities, to produce plutonium for its ever-increasing arsenal.

The Chinese government has said the island is home only to civilian power reactors, designed to generate 600 megawatts of electricity each – a little more than 1 percent of the total capacity of China’s nuclear power sector.

President Xi Jinping came to power of a nuclear nation who saw little need for expansion as Russia and the US continued to face off in the years following the end of the Cold War.

But as with most areas of the Chinese state, Xi has transformed the country to ensure that all areas align with his long term goals.

Politically, economically and diplomatically, the Chinese and US are locked in an arm wrestle, each attempting to establish themselves as the world’s most dominant and China’s nuclear ambitions are seen as an extension of this aim.

A comparable nuclear arsenal could give Beijing leverage over the US in any future conflict or negotiation over Taiwan – an island China claims sovereignty on.

Xi has repeatedly reasserted his wish to “reunify” China with the island and has refused to rule out doing so by force.

Nikolai Sokov, who worked on nuclear treaties in Russia in the 1980s, told The Telegraph: “China seems to be adopting the standard deterrence model. Among elements of that model is the assumption that you cannot have a confrontation unless you have a very reliable deterrent element.

“If you expect a conflict with the United States, say with Taiwan… it is preparation to enhance their ability to bargain and to reduce the ability of the United States to threaten.”