"The report that China is building 100 or more silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach the United States marks a concerning waypoint in China’s expansion and modernization of its nuclear forces. If missiles are deployed in the new silos, they would represent a blossoming arms race that is a serious challenge to the Biden administration, already facing competition from Beijing across many fronts. The new silos make more urgent the start of negotiations with China on strategic nuclear arms control.

"Jeffrey Lewis and Decker Eveleth at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies have used commercial satellite images taken by Planet to discover the new silos spread across 700 square miles near Yumen in Gansu province, some 1,300 miles west of Beijing. China broke ground just this year on the new facilities and the pace of construction has been rapid. All told, if new silos elsewhere are added, China has more than 145 under construction. It now has 100 land-based ICBMs that are divided among a few dozen silos, with the rest on mobile launchers.

Not every new silo may house a missile. There could be an attempt to create a shell game to disguise the true location of China’s missiles, not unlike the thinking behind proposed basing modes for the MX missile in the 1980s in the United States. But even if China only deploys missiles in some of the silos now, it could add to them later."

Why essential?
What is the goal of arms control talk?