Beijing has increased imports of Russian nuclear fuel in order to start another reactor. At the same time, the United States fears that China could use this nuclear material for the production of weapons.
In December 2022, Chinese and American diplomats held talks to reduce military tensions. However, on the same day, Russian engineers delivered a huge cargo of nuclear fuel to one of the islands of China, which is only 220 kilometers from the northern coast of Taiwan.
Relations between Russia and China are alarming
Actually, we are talking about the fact that Moscow supplies Beijing with nuclear fuel for a nuclear reactor on Changbiao Island. Today it is one of the most monitored nuclear installations in the world.
CFR-600 (China's Changbiao Island Reactor – Channel 24) will produce weapons-grade plutonium that could help Beijing increase its warhead stockpile. This would allow China to compare with the nuclear arsenals that are now located in the United States and Russia. – admitted analysts from Bloomberg.
At the same time, they do not object that this program can be completely civilian and pose no threat. Although it is very alarming that China has stopped reporting its civil and segregated plutonium stockpiles.
What they say in the Pentagon
Representatives of the US Department of Defense have repeatedly noted that by 2035 China can increase the number of nuclear warheads to 1,500 pieces. Currently, their number does not exceed 400 pieces.
The December 12 supply by the Russian state corporation Rosatom of 6,477 kilograms of uranium fuels a nuclear program that could destabilize the military balance in Asia. Tensions are rising over Taiwan and control of South China, Bloomberg wrote, citing the Pentagon.
In addition, they cited the position of Beijing, which rejects the anxiety that has arisen in Washington. Actually, China assures that it strictly fulfills its obligations on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
How many warheads does each nuclear state in the world have / Picture Channel 24
Russia ceased participation in START
It should be said that the increase in China's imports of Russian nuclear fuel occurred against the background of the fact that Putin announced the termination of participation in the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Arms.
This document kept Washington and Beijing from returning to the arms race and provided for control over nuclear weapons by Russia and the United States of America.
