“[My time at ACA] prepared me very well for the position that I took following that with the State Department, where I then implemented and helped to implement many of the policies that we tried to promote.”
China Displays Modernized Nuclear Forces
October 2025
By Shizuka Kuramitsu
China displayed its rapidly modernizing military power at a parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, including unveiling its land-, sea-, and air-based nuclear triad for the first time.
The military parade in Beijing Sept. 3 was meant to “mark the hard-won victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War,” according to the state Xinhua News Agency. It aimed to pledge “the country’s commitment to peaceful development in a world still fraught with turbulence and uncertainties,” the news outlet reported.
At the parade, China revealed one new intercontinental ballistic missile, the Dongfeng-61. This new missile was grouped with other nuclear systems—such as the Dongfeng-31-BJ ICBM; the sea-launched ballistic missile, Julang-3; and the air-launched ballistic missile, Jinglei-1—suggesting the DF-61 is also nuclear, according to a Sept. 4 analysis by Hans Kristensen, Eliana Johns, Matt Korda, and Mackenzie Knight-Boyle of the Federation of American Scientists.
“Although only one of the nuclear weapons presented at the parade was entirely new (the DF-61 ICBM), that and the many other systems displayed in this and previous parades—combined with the construction of three large missile silo fields and so far more than a tripling of the nuclear warhead stockpile—vividly illustrate the significant modernization and buildup of nuclear forces that China has undertaken over the past couple of decades,” the federation team wrote.
Despite the public display of the DF-61 missile, it remains unclear how different it is from the existing Dongfeng-41 ICBM, according to the federation team report and Etienne Marcuz, associate fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research, who commented Sept. 3 on X.
“Based on new information from the parade footage, it seems China now has nine different versions of land-based ICBMs: DF-5A, DF-5B, DF-5C, DF-27 (not yet displayed in public), DF-31A, DF-31AG, DF-31BJ, DF-41, and DF-61,” according to the FAS team.
The researchers said that the displayed buildup of nuclear forces “appears to contradict China’s obligations under the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and risks stimulating nuclear buildups in the United States and India—developments that would not be in China’s interest.”
Along with the land component, the Julang-3 and Jinglei-1 were displayed, marking the first-time that China has collectively showcased its full nuclear triad.
It also marked the first time that China displayed a nuclear weapons system for delivery by aircraft, the Jinglei-1, which was described by the official parade commentator as an “air-based long-range missile,” according to the FAS report. “This is likely the air-launched ballistic missile (designated CH-AS-X-13 by the [U.S. Department of Defense]) that the Chinese air force has been working on for several years to integrate on the H-6N intermediate-range bomber. The first bomber base to be equipped for the nuclear mission is thought to be Neixiang air base in Henan province,” added the FAS report.
According to the Sept. 3 Xinhua report, “Representatives … from countries such as Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Canada” were invited to the event, which Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and more than 20 other foreign leaders attended.
China’s People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force is responsible for overseeing the country’s conventional and nuclear land-based missiles. In 2023, the rocket force had several cases of corruption scandals that resulted in a large-scale purge. (See ACT, March 2023.) According to the Chinese-language Singaporean newspaper Lianhe Zaobao, Chinese media revealed Sept. 11 that the purge was a result of a nine-year-long investigation.
The investigation found that “procurement brokers with expert identities and state-owned enterprises that engaged in bid rigging, and their qualifications have been terminated,” the newspaper reported.