On July 18, 2012, Major General Zhu Chenghu spoke at a seminar where he announced that China may need to modernize its nuclear arsenal in response to a planned U.S.-backed missile defense system that may have a destabilizing effect on strategic stability. China "must modernize its nuclear arsenal" because the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system "may reduce the credibility of China’s nuclear deterrence. … Therefore Beijing needs to improve its capability to survive and infiltrate. … Otherwise, we will have a tough time maintaining that we have a credible system of nuclear deterrence.”
Source: Radio Free Asia, July 19, 2012
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/Hezixiandaihua-07192012035326.html