China’s rapidly growing nuclear arsenal is a “concern to global and regional stability”, G7 leaders said on Friday after talks on nuclear disarmament in Japan’s Hiroshima. The SIPRI think tank estimates that China has a stockpile of around 350 nuclear warheads – a small sum when compared with the US and Russia. However, it is growing fast, and the country could have 1,500 warheads by 2035, according to a Pentagon estimate published in November. Three G7 members – the United States, Britain and France – have nuclear weapons, and the rest are protected by the US “nuclear umbrella”.