"Experts believe the silos are designed for China’s newest ICBM, the DF-41, which can reach most of America’s mainland (see map). The question is why so many are needed. One theory is that they allow China to play a “shell game” with its missiles—an old conjuring trick in which a ball is placed under one of three cups that are shuffled to conceal where it is.

China would have good reason to bamboozle others about the precise whereabouts of its missiles. It has long feared that, in a crisis, America could use its large arsenal—or even a new generation of highly accurate conventional missiles—to wipe out China’s meagre forces on the ground. If some Chinese missiles were able to survive such an onslaught, they could be disabled in flight by America’s burgeoning missile defences, including interceptors in Alaska and California. In other words, China’s nuclear arsenal could be rendered useless. America stresses that its missile-defence systems are not directed at Russia, but makes no such commitment about their use against China.

If, however, missiles could be moved underground between silos, America would have no way of knowing which ones to strike. America’s “MX” programme, launched in the 1970s, could have inspired China to use such trickery. The idea was to shuffle 200 missiles among almost 5,000 bunkers in Utah and Nevada. The plan was shelved in 1981 by America’s then president, Ronald Reagan. He mocked it as a needlessly complex “Rube Goldberg scheme”—a reference to that American cartoonist’s drawings of fanciful contraptions for accomplishing simple tasks.
....
Not everyone is convinced that China is merely planning a shell game. In theory, and in the long term, 230 new silos could support the deployment of 230 new missiles with several hundred warheads, since each missile can carry at least two of them and perhaps many more. American officials have long been arguing that China is rapidly expanding its nuclear forces. In its most recent annual report on China’s military power, published last September, the Pentagon said the country’s stockpile of warheads was projected to “at least double in size” over the next decade. In April the head of Strategic Command, Admiral Charles Richard, presumably aware of the silo fields, said that China’s programme was advancing so quickly that intelligence was becoming out of date within a month."

https://www.economist.com/china/2021/07/31/china-is-rapidly-building-new-nuclear-missile-silos

On Monday, August 2, 2021 at 8:26:19 AM UTC-7, ltlee1 wrote:
> "Experts believe the silos are designed for China’s newest ICBM, the DF-41, which can reach most of America’s mainland (see map). The question is why so many are needed. One theory is that they allow China to play a “shell game” with its missiles—an old conjuring trick in which a ball is placed under one of three cups that are shuffled to conceal where it is.
>
> China would have good reason to bamboozle others about the precise whereabouts of its missiles. It has long feared that, in a crisis, America could use its large arsenal—or even a new generation of highly accurate conventional missiles—to wipe out China’s meagre forces on the ground. If some Chinese missiles were able to survive such an onslaught, they could be disabled in flight by America’s burgeoning missile defences, including interceptors in Alaska and California. In other words, China’s nuclear arsenal could be rendered useless. America stresses that its missile-defence systems are not directed at Russia, but makes no such commitment about their use against China.
>
> If, however, missiles could be moved underground between silos, America would have no way of knowing which ones to strike. America’s “MX” programme, launched in the 1970s, could have inspired China to use such trickery. The idea was to shuffle 200 missiles among almost 5,000 bunkers in Utah and Nevada. The plan was shelved in 1981 by America’s then president, Ronald Reagan. He mocked it as a needlessly complex “Rube Goldberg scheme”—a reference to that American cartoonist’s drawings of fanciful contraptions for accomplishing simple tasks.
> ...
> Not everyone is convinced that China is merely planning a shell game. In theory, and in the long term, 230 new silos could support the deployment of 230 new missiles with several hundred warheads, since each missile can carry at least two of them and perhaps many more. American officials have long been arguing that China is rapidly expanding its nuclear forces. In its most recent annual report on China’s military power, published last September, the Pentagon said the country’s stockpile of warheads was projected to “at least double in size” over the next decade. In April the head of Strategic Command, Admiral Charles Richard, presumably aware of the silo fields, said that China’s programme was advancing so quickly that intelligence was becoming out of date within a month."
>
> https://www.economist.com/china/2021/07/31/china-is-rapidly-building-new-nuclear-missile-silos

All these are nonsense!!!
China's DF-41, DF-ZF,... hypersonic weapons are mobile - truck-load-based weapons..., there is no need for silos... Besides... It has been well-known for a long long time, China has over 3,000 miles of tunnels... under mountains... there were pictures of tunnels in Hainan Island for submarines... Factories in tunnels to make weapons...

We can't even destroy Vietnam, Afghanistan,...
With the size of China, the tunnels,... the 1.4 billion people... it's impossible to defeat China...