![Chinese People’s Liberation Army cadets take part in a bayonet drills at the PLA’s Armored Forces Engineering Academy Base, Beijing, China, July 22, 2014 (AP photo by Andy Wong).](https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/l_china_pla_05192015.png?w=519&h=259&crop=1)
The latest edition of the U.S. Defense Department’s annual report on Chinese military power has once again put the spotlight on China’s massive military modernization program. In addition to upgrading its conventional forces, developing anti-access strategies and increasing its cyber and space warfare capabilities, China is modernizing its nuclear forces. Indeed, China is the only one of the five legally recognized nuclear weapons states whose nuclear arsenal is growing in both size and sophistication. These new developments call into question long-standing assumptions about China’s nuclear posture, with implications for regional and global security. Beijing has long kept the number of […]