China has over 500 operational nuclear warheads according to a Pentagon report

The Pentagon Report on China: “Too much improved capability in the airspace, sea level and sea level capabilities of the country,” said President Pelosi

Beijing had not commented immediately on the report. Chinese officials have previously depicted the air intercepts as reasonable responses to foreign military patrols that threatened the country’s security.

The Pentagon’s report said that China’s decades of efforts to modernize its military had continued to “widen the capability gap compared to Taiwan’s military.” In the event of a war with Taiwan, China could try to end it by ramping up cyberspace, space or nuclear activities, it was noted.

Although he has said that he wants a peaceful unification with Taiwan, he has also admitted that he will not rule out using military force.

“It is a complete transformation of China’s approach to nuclear weapons,” says M. Taylor Fravel, a professor of political science who specializes in security studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According to the latest Pentagon report, China has increased the number of warheads it has in its arsenal.

The Pentagon’s annual report on China began in 2000, and despite current hot wars in both Ukraine and now the Middle East, the Pentagon assessment is closely watched as national security concerns on China continue to drive U.S. defense budgets and training priorities.

Last August, following former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s high-profile visit to the island democracy, China held large-scale military exercises that encircled Taiwan’s main island. Analysts said the move demonstrated how Beijing’s military might blockade Taiwan and cut it off from critical energy supplies in the future.

Since the exercises, China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army or PLA, has also flown more regular sorties of military planes and naval vessels in the airspace and waters around Taiwan.

“We definitely see improvements in their capabilities. Those were demonstrated in certain respects during their response to the then-Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, to President Tsai’s transit of the United States,” the senior defense official said, but also noted that the “PRC still perceives that they have some shortcomings that they have yet to fully address.”