Guwahati News Desk: As per the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) report, published on Monday, a second missile silo is being built by China in Hami (Xinjiang province), that is located 380 kilometres from the one in Yumen site in Gansu province.
The report is based on the satellite images obtained by the FAS, which provided the information that as many as 110 missile silos are being constructed in the Xinjiang province, which will take China’s armour of nuclear tipped missiles to 250.
The report published on Monday, came weeks after the news of construction of about 120 missile silos in Yumen, a desert area about 380 km to the southeast.
The U.S. Strategic Command said in a tweet, “This is the second time in two months the public has discovered what we have been saying all along about the growing threat the world faces and the veil of secrecy that surrounds it.”
The State Department in early July called China’s nuclear buildup “concerning” and said that it appeared like, Beijing was deviating from decades of nuclear strategy based around minimal deterrence. It called on China to engage with it “on practical measures to reduce the risks of destabilizing arms races.”
The Republican Congressman, Mike Turner, ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, said China’s nuclear build-up was “unprecedented” and that China was “deploying nuclear weapons to threaten the United States and our allies.”
He added that China’s refusal to negotiate arms control “should be a cause for concern and condemned by all responsible nations.”
Meanwhile, the report on the new silos came as Assistant Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, was due to hold arms control talks with Russia in Geneva on Wednesday.
