If true, the Americans have only themselves to blame - the START treaty between the US and Russia have expired because the Americans refused to renew it as Trump considers it a "badly negotiated deal". (Trump says new nuclear treaty needed to replace New START - https://www.dw.com/en/trump-says-new-nuclear-treaty-needed-t... ). Note that Putin has offered to extend the term of the treaty (probably because he really doesn't want to get into a new nuclear arms race with west, given the condition of Russian economy today). Trump meanwhile wants to include China too in the treaty, which, as the linked Newsweek article highlights, they are absolutely not interested in. (Possibly because they see it more as an intelligence gathering mission to find out the status of Chinese nuclear weapons, and they don't trust the west to adhere to its terms).
DoD believes there is no chance (0%) China would agree to any nuclear treaties until they've hit parity with US/Russia in raw warhead count. And btw, DoD's unclassified assertions about their warhead count is based on old assumptions of their fissile material production and plutonium/tritium availability. In terms of ICBMs, they have production facilities that can make about 90 Peacekeeper-class missiles a year.
In other words, this is less about what China wants and more about where this puts the future nuclear posture of the US.
If true, the Americans have only themselves to blame - the START treaty between the US and Russia have expired because the Americans refused to renew it as Trump considers it a "badly negotiated deal". (Trump says new nuclear treaty needed to replace New START - https://www.dw.com/en/trump-says-new-nuclear-treaty-needed-t... ). Note that Putin has offered to extend the term of the treaty (probably because he really doesn't want to get into a new nuclear arms race with west, given the condition of Russian economy today). Trump meanwhile wants to include China too in the treaty, which, as the linked Newsweek article highlights, they are absolutely not interested in. (Possibly because they see it more as an intelligence gathering mission to find out the status of Chinese nuclear weapons, and they don't trust the west to adhere to its terms).
DoD believes there is no chance (0%) China would agree to any nuclear treaties until they've hit parity with US/Russia in raw warhead count. And btw, DoD's unclassified assertions about their warhead count is based on old assumptions of their fissile material production and plutonium/tritium availability. In terms of ICBMs, they have production facilities that can make about 90 Peacekeeper-class missiles a year.
In other words, this is less about what China wants and more about where this puts the future nuclear posture of the US.