China’s DF-5C missile: Xi Jinping's message to US? Key facts about most-powerful nuclear weapon

China showcased new intercontinental ballistic missiles, DF-5C and DF-61, during a military parade in Beijing, signaling its nuclear ambitions to the US.

In what can be seen as a message to the United States, China revealed two new gigantic intercontinental ballistic missile designs, Dongfeng-5C (DF-5C), and DF-61, on the streets of Beijing during the lavish World War II anniversary military parade.

A DF-5C intercontinental ballistic missile is seen during a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on September 3, 2025. (AFP)

With Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un present as chief guests, China showed off a variety of air-launched, sea-launched and ground-based nuclear weapons. The DF-5C and DF-61 missiles stood out not just for their size but for what they say about China’s plans to build its nuclear arsenal, which the US estimated last year would reach 1,000 warheads by 2030, news agency Bloomberg reported.

What are DF-5C and DF-61 missiles?

• Both the DF-5 and DF-61 are considerably larger than existing US and Russian designs. DF-5C is reportedly the most powerful liquid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
• During the parade, the DF-5C was displayed in three separate sections as it rolled through Tiananmen Square. Each of its two stages was mounted on vehicles similar in size to those used for the nearly 15-metre-long DF-26 missile.
• The missile is more than 3 metres (about 10 feet) wide and powered by four engines, suggesting it can carry a very heavy load. In 2017, Chinese state media said it was capable of carrying up to 10 separate nuclear warheads, one large warhead, or another heavy payload.
• The DF-5C’s oversized warhead, which proceeded through the street on a separate truck ahead of the missile body sections, also looked large enough to contain “a multimegaton warhead,” Bloomberg quoted Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, as saying.
• The largest warheads fielded by the US and Russia are in the 750-kiloton to 1-megaton range.
• Liquid fuel creates more thrust than solid fuel, but is often more volatile, difficult to store, and hard to transport.
• China’s older DF-5s have been launched from gantries or silos. The DF-61, by contrast, was carried through Beijing on a 16-wheeled transporter-erector-launcher truck. The vehicles make the missile “road mobile", giving commanders the flexibility to distribute the weapons to protect them or to plan a strike.
• Like the DF-5C, its size—more than 20 meters long—implies a heavy payload. It is probably a successor to the DF-41 ICBM, which can reach anywhere in North America.
• China reportedly tested such a system in 2021. The Soviet Union and the US experimented with them during the 1970s and ‘80s but ultimately abandoned the technology as being too destabilising.
• Missile technology and nuclear disarmament expert professor Yang Chengjun told the Global Times that the DF-5C missile has an estimated range of more than 20,000 kilometres, and has advantages in defence penetration and precision.
• The DF-5C liquid-fueled intercontinental strategic nuclear missile has the entire globe under its strike range. It stands on guard at all times to effectively deter, preventing wars through force and helping stabilise the world.