Satellite Images Show China Expanding Nuclear Weapons Sites at Seven Locations, Telegraph Investigation Finds

Seven Sites, One Pattern

An investigation by The Telegraph, published Sept 23, 2026 and based on satellite imagery and expert analysis, found active construction and upgrades at seven Chinese nuclear facilities: Pingtong, Zitong, Lop Nur, Jiuquan, Mianyang, Jinta and Guangyuan.

At Pingtong, believed to be involved in producing plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons, The Telegraph found an entire new support town built along the Fujiang River, complete with apartment blocks, an athletics field and a bus depot to move staff. At Zitong, a 600-meter tube has gone up that experts told The Telegraph is used to test how nuclear weapons hold up against blast effects. A third site has flattened villages and farms to make room for a fusion research center where scientists reportedly use high-powered lasers to study how materials behave when a nuclear weapon detonates.

Renny Babiarz, a geospatial intelligence expert who shared his findings with The Telegraph, said, "I think there was a decision made [under Mr Xi] to develop the nuclear weapons programme, to invest in it, and to expand it."

The Warhead Count

The Federation of American Scientists' 2026 Nuclear Notebook puts China's arsenal at roughly 620 warheads, a figure also cited by Times of India, Streamline Feed and Inkstick Media, and one that The Telegraph attaches to a separate annual estimate from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Two independent trackers landing on the same number is notable, but readers should know the 620 figure traces to overlapping but distinct institutions, not a single confirmed government disclosure. China does not publish an official warhead count.

Projections for where that number goes diverge more sharply. The Telegraph reports China's stockpile could hit 1,500 warheads by 2035. Worthy News cites Pentagon estimates that Beijing could top 1,000 warheads by 2030. Those aren't necessarily contradictory since they cover different years, but they come from different institutions using different methods, and neither is a hard number.

For comparison, U.S. and Russian totals cited across these reports also don't line up. Inkstick Media puts Russia's stockpile above 4,400 warheads and the U.S. above 3,700. The Daily Wire cites roughly 5,500 for Russia and 5,300 for the U.S. Both nations still hold the overwhelming majority of the planet's nuclear weapons, but the spread in these estimates is a reminder that even the two most transparent nuclear powers don't produce numbers everyone agrees on, let alone China.

What Beijing Says

China's public position hasn't changed. In its 2026 submission to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review process, Beijing said it follows a strategy of self-defense, maintains a no-first-use policy, and keeps its nuclear force at what it calls the minimum level required for national security. China has also signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

According to Insiderpaper, Chinese officials have dismissed the satellite findings as part of what they call a "defamation campaign" designed to mislead the public, arguing Western media is hyping a threat that doesn't exist.

A reasonable skeptic of the alarm would point out that modernizing an aging arsenal, replacing old delivery systems, and building test infrastructure isn't automatically evidence of an offensive shift. Every nuclear power, including the U.S., is modernizing right now. The concern raised by U.S. Senators Roger Wicker and Deb Fischer, both Republicans, is less about modernization and more about pace and opacity: Fischer told colleagues China's buildup is happening "at breathtaking speed," and Wicker told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March that Beijing "looks to dominate Asia and supplant U.S. leadership." Those are political judgments, not settled facts, and China has never allowed independent inspection of these sites to confirm or rebut them one way or the other. That opacity is itself the core problem: there's no verification mechanism forcing Beijing to prove its "minimum deterrence" claim, which is exactly why estimates from FAS, SIPRI and the Pentagon all differ.

The Timing

The investigation landed the same week Xi Jinping is set to arrive in Washington to meet Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, Sept 24, 2026. In a written statement issued ahead of the visit, Xi said China and the U.S. should be "partners, not rivals," calling for a relationship built on cooperation and manageable differences, according to Times of India.

Trump has his own history on this file. Last fall, ahead of an earlier meeting with Xi, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he had "instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis" with other countries, a move The Telegraph notes arms control experts warned against.

Separately, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Thomas DiNanno has accused China of concealing an underground nuclear test back in 2020 by using seismic-monitoring evasion techniques, an allegation Chinese ambassador Shen Jian rejected, telling reporters the U.S. is "the culprit for the aggravation of the arms race."

The New START treaty between the U.S. and Russia, the last major nuclear arms agreement either country was party to, expired in February 2026. The Daily Wire notes Trump has floated pulling China into a replacement agreement. Whether that comes up in Thursday's meeting, and whether Beijing has any interest in trading its arsenal's opacity for a seat at that table, remains an open question neither government has answered.