10nfl1-Nukes-Cover
CHINA IS QUICKLY STRIVING TO BECOME A DOMINANT GLOBAL POWER
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| CHINA IS QUICKLY STRIVING TO BECOME A DOMINANT GLOBAL POWER BOTH WITH CONVENTIONAL AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS. (Elizabeth Economy-Fellow for China and Deputy Director of the Asia Studies Program at the Council of Foreign Relations-and Michel Oksenberg-Senior Fellow at the Asia Pacific Reasearch Center @ Stanford University, Professor of Political Science, China joins the World Progress and prospects, ed. By Elizabeth Economy and Michel Oksenberg, p, 1999) Our analysis indicates that overall Chinese views and behavior toward both conventional and unconventional weapons development are motivated primarily by a relatively hard realpolitik, state-centered, balance-of-power calculus centered on maintaining and increasing China's relative economic, technological, and military power. This calculus assumes that China is a weak state inmost areas relevant to the development of a modern military force, especially when compared with major potential competitors in the Asia-Pacific region, such as the United States and Japan. Given this perceived weakness, Chinese leaders believe their country therefore must modernize its conventional and strategic force structure they also believe that improving China's relative power will not only enhance its security vis-à-vis other major powers in the region, but also will contribute to greater regional and international status. China's strategic weapons development program suggests that its military might be diversifying its approach to the use of nuclear weapons in ways that could complicate various current and future arms control efforts. Our analysis also shows that China's greatly expanded participation in various forms of arms control has consisted primarily of efforts to adapt its weak-state, realpolitik approach to a changing international arms control agenda while at the same time trying to minimize constraints on its own military capabilities. Evidence that China's leaders accept security concepts based, for instance, on a recognition of the security dilemma or on the concept of common security is still hard to come by, although these concepts do seem to be influencing how some Chinese arms control specialists in the policy process think about security. 10NFL1-Nuclear Weapons Page 107 of 199 www.victorybriefs.com Download 1.23 Mb. Share with your friends:
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