So.There is many way to generate Pu one of them is thru reprocessing But you can also get it from natural uranium From your own reference. china does have the technology of enrichment and power plant, reprocessing So there is no impediment whatsoever to produce weapon grade in large number
Plutonium-239 is more frequently used in nuclear weapons than Uranium-235, as it is easier to obtain in a quantity of . Both Plutonium-239 and Uranium-235 are obtained from , which primarily consists of Uranium-238 but contains traces of other isotopes of uranium such as . The process of , i.e. increasing the ratio of U-235 to U-238 to , is generally a more lengthy and costly process than the production of Plutonium 239 from U-238 and subsequent .
Every country report the production of Pu and other fissile material except China So nobody really know what is the stockpile of China's fissile material
Hans Kristensen estimate is way off He work for FAS that tend to minimize China stock pile in order to drive his agenda of complete disarmament of nuclear weapon
So China is his poster boy
This discussion is not about China capability to make 100,1000 or 10 000 warhead.
China CAPABLE to make those, and (honestly) even India is capable to do that.
China DECLARED in words and actions that she stop to make more nuclear weapons at the beginning of 90s.
It is easy to monitor the activity around the Pu making plants, and to asses based on the data the amount of Pu available for weapon making.
No government on the world has AUDITED report about the amount of nuclear weapon materials.
There is same declarations, but no one checked it, and considering the importance of this data you can expect that they lie about it.
So, again, the question is not the CAPABILITY of China to make Pu, but that in the absence of Pu did they choose to make U235 based warheads?
That require way more missile to deliver the payload, and makes it hard (impossible) to fit the warheads onto cruise missiles.
And the U235 as pit material NOT decrease the yield, but INCREASE the diameter / weight of the warhead.
Based on this China has 90 delivery vehicle.
If all of the mirved then it would require the whole nuclear stockpile that China poses.
Means there is no way to increase the number of warheads.
And 90 missile can be intercepted by the US with the korean radars/ABMs.
And if USA attack first then the remaining 10-30 ICBM is not a issue to intercept for the ABM systems.