China’s nuclear power construction is booming, yet the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) harbours growing concerns about how Chinese reactors will fare in a conflict.
Last month, Beijing greenlit 10 new reactors, bringing the total number of operational and under-construction commercial reactors to 102 – more than any other country.
All of these plants are along the coast, with some in geopolitically sensitive areas, such as the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.
A new PLA study warns that these reactors could become prime targets in wartime, risking catastrophic consequences if China fails to repel such attacks.
“China remains in a critical period of strategic opportunity, but nuclear power plants and other key infrastructure face real and evolving risks amid complex international and domestic environments,” wrote the project team, led by associate professor Wang Fengshan, of the PLA Army Engineering University. Their peer-reviewed paper was published last month in Command Control and Simulation, a Chinese defence technology journal.
The project, launched in 2023, argued that nuclear plants “would inevitably become high-value targets for adversaries in war, armed conflict or terrorist attacks, posing grave threats to lives and property”.
