A study released by two private research groups asserts that the US and China are embroiled in an incipient arms race that approaches the patterns of the Cold War.
The study, released on Thursday, called the competition potentially dangerous and said the two countries must be careful not to let the nuclear issue undermine important economic, political and cultural ties.
The report was released by the Federation of American Scientists and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The new study says, "Our principal finding is that the Chinese-US nuclear relationship is dramatically disproportionate in favor of the United States and will remain so for the foreseeable future."
Robert Norris, a Natural Resources Defense Council nuclear analyst and co-author of the report, accused the Pentagon of overstating the Chinese threat.
"Now that the Soviet Union is gone, the military needs a new threat to justify buying new missiles, destroyers, submarines and fighter planes. So they're hyping China," he said.
Major David Smith, a Defense Department spokesman, said a 2006 Defense Department report to Congress on China's military is based on facts and is not intended to prove that China is or is not a threat.
"It lets the facts speak for themselves. We stand by our report as being factual," Smith said, rejecting assertions that the Pentagon assessments are hyped.
The study estimated China's stockpile at around 200 warheads, compared with nearly 10,000 for the US.
"By 2015, after China deploys a new generation of ballistic missiles and the United States has completed its planned reductions, China may have some 220 warheads and the United States more than 5,000," the report said.
China has about 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the continental US; the US has more than 830 missiles, most with multiple warheads, that can reach China.
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