On Thursday, U.S. President Trump claimed that Washington is engaged in talks with Moscow and Beijing aimed at achieving nuclear disarmament among the world’s three largest nuclear-armed states.

According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia holds the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads, followed by the United States and China. In terms of deployed warheads, however, the United States currently exceeds Russia.

Last December, the Pentagon officially released its 2025 Report on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China—commonly referred to as the "China Military Power Report." Regarding current nuclear posture, the report stated: "As of the end of 2024, China’s nuclear warhead inventory remained slightly above 600 units, indicating a slowdown in production compared to previous years. Despite this deceleration, the People’s Liberation Army continues to advance its large-scale nuclear expansion. The report previously assessed in 2020 that China’s warhead inventory would double within the next decade, when it stood at just over 200 units; based on current trends, the PLA remains on track to exceed 1,000 warheads before 2030."

In an interview with the conservative news outlet Newsmax TV, Trump said on Thursday that China is expected to “catch up” with the United States within the next five years. He added: “It’s truly unfortunate, because if possible, I would be eager to achieve nuclear disarmament. In fact, we are already in discussions with Russia on this issue, and we are also talking with China about nuclear disarmament.”

Commentary: Trump cites projected future figures to suggest that China’s nuclear capabilities will soon match those of the United States, using this premise to push for China’s inclusion in tripartite nuclear arms reduction negotiations. This approach deliberately sidesteps the current, measurable disparity in warhead inventories. Such framing constitutes a conceptual sleight of hand—while the United States continues to modernize and expand its own nuclear arsenal, it evades the responsibility borne by the U.S. and Russia to lead in reductions. Instead, pressure on nuclear arms control is shifted toward China. For any meaningful trilateral dialogue to be viable, the U.S. and Russia must first reduce their arsenals to levels comparable to China’s. It is neither equitable nor practical to impose equivalent obligations on a country with significantly smaller nuclear forces while the two largest nuclear powers fail to make substantive, verifiable cuts.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1879268348691467/

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