I do agree that the DoD report is most likely made up by people with no real security clearance or access to proper US intelligence, relying mostly on publicly available data. Some stuff are blatantly repeated year after year and are very much out of date. However, real worth of the report comes from the gravity of its source. For some stuff, when even the report mentions them, it means they've progressed far beyond speculation and are basically a fact. Of course, there are those other stuff which may be plain wrong, and it's important (and very hard sometimes) to differentiate the two.
The report did not say PLAAF was shifting H6's role to nuclear one but expanding its roles to include nuclear roles. For all we know, old H6 may have never lost the nuclear role. So this may point out merely to H6K being integrated to carry nuclear bombs. However, it may very also mean testing of nuclear tipped cruise missiles is progressing. There may not have been any mention of that from the Chinese side if it's work in progress. Plus, PLA may regard those as tactical nukes and may not see them as crucial part of deterrence. Just as the Russians and US (especially recently with the new proposal of more tactical nukes) also rely on tactical nuke weapons.
Since we're talking about the report, it also mentions 6 093B attack subs, but then says 5 SSN subs are in service. (also this may be the first "proper source" mentioning there are 6 093 built?) So they seem to believe (for what it's worth) that all 091 subs are retired and that the sixth 093 has not been commissioned yet. They also distinguish just two types, the initial two 093 and four of what they call 093A. They do also mention 093B, as "future subvariant to carry cruise missiles, to come by mid 2020s" So are they suggesting there will be several more 093 before 095 comes online? Actually, they do not mention 095 at all. (they did mention it in previous reports!) So have they switched their nomenclature from 095 to 093B?
