May 9th, 2013
China’s recent defense white paper did not include a reiteration of the nation’s traditional commitment to never use nuclear weapons first. The omission was not a signal that China abandoned no first use, despite U.S. speculation to the contrary. Read More
April 23rd, 2013
On April 16, the Chinese Ministry of Defense released a white paper that mentioned Chinese nuclear weapons but did not contain familiar language expressing China’s declaratory policy, particularly that China would never use nuclear weapons first, under any circumstances. This commitment to “no first use” has been a bedrock of Chinese nuclear weapons policy since the announcement was first made in 1964, immediately following China’s first nuclear weapons test. Read More
April 16th, 2013
The most well known and the least well appreciated statistic defining contemporary China is the size of its population, officially estimated to be 1.344 billion. That’s equivalent to the combined populations of the United States, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Canada, South Africa, Australia and Jamaica. Read More
April 13th, 2013
U.S. and Chinese leaders both seek a denuclearized North Korea. But they disagree, fundamentally, on how that can be achieved. U.S. analysts and observers frame that disagreement inaccurately, contributing to misunderstanding that unnecessarily undermines strategic trust between China and the United States. Read More
April 8th, 2013
Chinese State Councilor and former Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi spoke with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on the phone last week, reportedly about a wide range of unresolved issues between the two nations. Kerry is preparing to make his first visit to China as Secretary of State later this week. Read More
April 7th, 2013
October 2003: The Bartlett administration’s equivalent of Kurt Campbell explains why a North
Korean piano player cannot be allowed to defect to the United States.
Recent U.S. press reports suggest Chinese frustration with recent North Korean provocations could lead to a shift in Chinese policy towards their belligerent neighbor. Read More
April 1st, 2013
Chinese Astronaut Yang Liwei aboard his Shenzhou V spacecraft during China’s first human space flight in October 2003. Image captured from a Chinese Central Television (CCTV) broadcast.
In a March 28 essay in The Diplomat, Scott Pace, a leading U.S. space policy expert, argues the United States should take proactive steps “to shape the international environment for the space activities that our economy and security depend on.” One important step he suggests is to focus on Asia. Read More
March 27th, 2013
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin included the following short paragraph on missile defense in a lengthy joint statement that covered a wide variety of other topics. It appeared in the section of the statement devoted to international affairs. Read More
January 4th, 2013
In 2007 and 2010 China conducted anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons tests, both on January 11. Rumors circulating for the past few months suggest that some within the U.S. defense and intelligence community believe China is preparing to conduct another ASAT test.
The first media report on these rumors appeared in October. Read More
December 8th, 2012
Newly appointed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping may have broken new ground in Chinese nuclear weapons policy this week. Xi, who is also the new chair of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC), gave what China’s Wenhui Bao characterized as a “major address” to a delegation from China’s Second Artillery during a meeting in Beijing on 5 December. Read More
© 2013
