Paper Tigers: China’s Nuclear Posture (Adelphi Book 446)

China’s nuclear arsenal has long been an enigma. It is a small force, based almost exclusively on land-based ballistic missiles, maintained at a low level of alert and married to a no-first-use doctrine – all choices that would seem to invite attack in a crisis. Chinese leaders, when they have spoken about nuclear weapons, have articulated ideas that sound odd to the Western ear. Mao Zedong’s oft-quoted remark that ‘nuclear weapons are a paper tiger’ seems to be bluster or madness.China’s nuclear forces are now too important to remain a mystery. Yet Westerners continue to disagree about basic factual information concerning one of the world’s most important nuclear-weapons states. This Adelphi book documents and explains the evolution of China’s nuclear forces in terms of historical, bureaucratic and ideological factors. There is a strategic logic at work, but that logic is mediated through politics, bureaucracy and ideology. The simplest explanation is that Chinese leaders, taken as a whole, have tended to place relatively little emphasis on the sort of technical details that dominated US discussions regarding deterrence. Such profound differences in thinking about nuclear weapons could lead to catastrophic misunderstanding in the event of a military crisis between Beijing and Washington.An important book which must be read by anyone concerned about the survival of the planet. The author shows that China and the US could drift into a nuclear confrontation unless both sides engage in a serious nuclear dialogue. Morton H. HalperinThis book systematically explores all the important aspects of China’s nuclear weapons policy and practice. It is a pioneering effort that consciously avoids the bias caused by the US practice of mirroring, which interprets Chinese nuclear policy according to the security outlook and perceptions of the US.Li Bin, Senior AssociateCarnegie Endowment for International Peace; Professor, Tsinghua University Read more