US President Joe Biden gave the green light for a top-secret strategic nuclear plan in March of this year that, for the first time, reshapes Washington's strategy to focus on China's expansion of its nuclear arsenal, The New York Times (NYT) reported on Tuesday.

The plan also reportedly seeks to prepare the US for possible coordinated nuclear challenges from China, Russia and North Korea. 

The NYT said Washington had never announced that Biden had approved the new proposal, entitled the "Nuclear Employment Guidance," but an unclassified notification to Congress of the revision is expected to be sent before Biden departs the White House in January 2025.

How did officials respond?

The US-based Arms Control Association, however, said it understood Washington's nuclear weapons strategy and posture remained the same as described in the Biden administration's 2022 Nuclear Posture Review, and there had been no reorientation away from Russia and toward China.

Asked about what the US daily had reported, White House spokesperson Sean Savett said: "This administration, like the four administrations before it, issued a Nuclear Posture Review and Nuclear Weapons Employment Planning Guidance."

"While the specific text of the Guidance is classified, its existence is in no way secret. The Guidance issued earlier this year is not a response to any single entity, country, nor threat."

Growing threat of China

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said that the Pentagon believes China may increase the size of its nuclear arsenal from 500 to 1,000 warheads by 2030 while Russia currently has some 4,000 nuclear warheads. "It remains the major driver behind US nuclear strategy," he said.

The United States' Department of Defense revealed in its annual report that China's military will continue to grow until 2035 and emphasized that Beijing's strategy considers the "unlimited" partnership with Russia as fundamental to its development as a power.

jsi/fb (Reuters, EFE)