China’s nuclear arsenal and other elements of its armed forces have grown robustly despite anticorruption investigations that have shaken the People’s Liberation Army at its highest levels, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

China’s navy “continues to develop into a global force, gradually extending its operational reach beyond East Asia,” the Defense Department said in an annual report assessing Beijing’s military strength. It said China also seemed to be exploring the production of conventionally armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, which would give it another option — alongside its 135 or so nuclear long-range missiles — that could be used to threaten the continental United States.

China does not disclose how many nuclear weapons it has. The Pentagon report estimates that it has added about 100 nuclear warheads since last year, bringing its stockpile to more than 600 by mid-2024. That is still much smaller than the arsenals of the United States and Russia, but China appears to be on track to deploy more than 1,000 warheads by 2030, the report said. Russia and the United States each deploy 1,550 strategic nuclear weapons under a treaty that could expire in 2026.

To counter China, the Biden administration has been expanding the United States’ security partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region, making deals that would allow U.S. forces to disperse across small islands and strike China with anti-ship weapons and cruise missiles. The Pentagon report may feed into calls for the incoming Trump administration to focus on China’s rising military strength, even as the United States grapples with Russia’s war in Ukraine and turmoil in the Middle East.

China’s nuclear buildup indicates that its leaders see a need to expand the range of destructive options they could deploy against the United States in a crisis or a war, the Pentagon said. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has developed the country’s arsenal more quickly than any previous leader.

ImageIntercontinental ballistic missiles on display at a military parade in Beijing in 2019.Credit...Jason Lee/Reuters

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“I welcome the chance to open a new chapter,” Mr. Biden said in the Oval Office. “The U.A.E. is a nation of trailblazers always looking, always looking to the future, always making big bets, and that’s something our countries have in common and our people have in common.”

Donald J. Trump did not mention Mr. Robinson once at a campaign event in Wilmington, N.C., on Saturday, and several Trump fans who attended said they understood why it was necessary to distance Mr. Trump from Mr. Robinson. The former president endorsed Mr. Robinson in March and held a fund-raiser for him at his home in Palm Beach, Fla., last year.

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