Satellite images show China is building nuke launch pads and bunkers

China is building dozens of launch pads for nuclear missiles, new satellite images show.

More than 80 pads have already been constructed in the middle of the desert in Xinjiang autonomous province, home to the Uyghur muslim community.

The new infrastructure has been built in the past six years within 150 kilometres of the Hami nuclear silo fields which house China’s longest range missiles, to which they are linked by airfields and railheads...

According to Pentagon reports, China is expanding its nuclear capability faster than any other nation and, despite a recent slowing in production, is well on track to reach 1,000 warheads by 2030.

It has also been boosting its early warning capability, underpinned by Huoyan-1 satellites, which can detect an incoming ICBM within 90 seconds of its launch and alert a command centre within three minutes, giving time for the country to fire its own weapons before they are hit.

But despite China’s ‘no first use’ policy, diplomats believe it cannot be ruled out that Beijing would use nuclear coercion to deter any possible foreign intervention in Taiwan.