Chinas Assertive Nuclear Posture
Chinas nuclear capability is crucial for the balance of power in East Asia and the world. As this book reveals, there have been important changes recently in Chinas nuclear posture: the movement from a minimum deterrence posture toward a medium nuclear power posture; the pursuit of space warfare and missile defence capabilities; and, most significantly, the omission in the 2013 Defence White Paper of any reference to the principle of No First Use. Employing the insights of structural realism, this book argues that the imperatives of an anarchic international order have been the central drivers of Chinas nuclear assertiveness. The book also assesses the likely impact of Chinas emerging nuclear posture on its neighbours and on the international strategic balance, especially with the United States. The book concludes by examining Chinas future nuclear directions in the context of its apparent shift toward a more offensive-oriented international strategy.
Baohui Zhang is Director, Centre for Asian Pacific Studies, and Professor of Political Science, at Lingnan University, Hong Kong.
China Policy Series
Series Editor
Zheng Yongnian, East Asian Institute,
National University of Singapore
1 China and the New International Order
Edited by Wang Gungwu and Zheng Yongnian
2 Chinas Opening Society
The non-state sector and governance
Edited by Zheng Yongnian and Joseph Fewsmith
3 Zhao Ziyang and Chinas Political Future
Edited by Guoguang Wu and Helen Lansdowne
4 Hainan - State, Society, and Business in a Chinese Province
Kjeld Erik Brodsgaard
5 Non-Governmental Organizations in China
The rise of dependent autonomy
Yiyi Lu
6 Power and Sustainability of the Chinese State
Edited by Keun Lee, Joon-Han Kim and Wing Thye Woo
7 Chinas Information and Communications Technology Revolution
Social changes and state responses
Edited by Xiaoling Zhang and Yongnian Zheng
8 Socialist China, Capitalist China
Social tension and political adaptation under economic globalisation
Edited by Guoguang Wu and Helen Lansdowne
9 Environmental Activism in China
Lei Xei
10 Chinas Rise in the World ICT Industry
Industrial strategies and the catch-up development model
Lutao Ning
11 Chinas Local Administration
Traditions and changes in the sub-national hierarchy
Edited by Jae-Ho Chung and Tao-chiu Lam
12 The Chinese Communist Party as Organizational Emperor
Culture, reproduction and transformation
Zheng Yongian
13 Chinas Trade UnionsHow Autonomous Are They?
Masaharu Hishida, Kazuko Kojima, Tomoaki Ishii and Jian Qiao
14 Legitimating the Chinese Communist Party since Tiananmen
A critical analysis of the stability discourse
Peter Sandby-Thomas
15 China and International Relations
The Chinese view and the contribution of Wang Gungwu
Zheng Yongnian
16 The Challenge of Labour in China
Strikes and the changing labour regime in global factories
Chris King-chi Chan
17 The Impact of Chinas 1989 Tiananmen Massacre
Edited by Jean-Philippe Bja
18 The Institutional Dynamics of Chinas Great Transformation
Edited by Xiaoming Huang
19 Higher Education in Contemporary China
Beyond expansion
Edited by W. John Morgan and Bin Wu
20 Chinas Crisis Management
Edited by Jae Ho Chung
21 China Engages Global Governance
A new world order in the making?
Gerald Chan, Pak K. Lee and Lai-Ha Chan
22 Political Culture and Participation in Rural China
Yang Zhong
23 Chinas Soft Power and International Relations
Hongyi Lai and Yiyi Lu
24 Chinas Climate Policy
CHEN Gang
25 Chinese SocietyChange and Transformation
Edited by Li Peilin
26 Chinas Challenges to Human Security
Foreign relations and global implications
Edited by Guoguang Wu
27 Chinas Internal and International Migration
Edited by Li Peilin and Laurence Roulleau-Berger
28 The Rise of Think Tanks in China
Xufeng Zhu
29 Governing Health in Contemporary China
Yanzhong Huang
30 New Dynamics in Cross-Taiwan Straits Relations
How far can the rapprochement go?
Edited by Weixing Hu
31 China and the European Union
Edited by Lisheng Dong, Zhengxu Wang and Henk Dekker
32 China and the International System
Becoming a world power
Edited by Xiaoming Huang and Robert G. Patman
33 Chinas Social Development and Policy
Into the next stage?
Litao Zhao
34 E-Government in China
Technology, power and local government reform
Jesper Schlger
35 Social Protest in Contemporary China, 20032010
Transitional Pains and regime legitimacy
Yanqi Tong and Shaohua Lei
36 Chinas Evolving Industrial Policies and Economic Restructuring
Edited by Zheng Yongnian and Sarah Y. Tong
37 China Entering the Xi Jinping Era
Edited by Zheng Yongnian and Lance L. P. Gore
38 Chinas Assertive Nuclear Posture
State Security in an Anarchic International Order
Baohui Zhang
First published 2015
by Routledge
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2015 Baohui Zhang
The right of Baohui Zhang to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Zhang, Baohui, 1963-
Chinas assertive nuclear posture : state security in an anarchic international order / Baohui Zhang.
pages cm. -- (China policy series ; 38)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Nuclear weapons--China. 2. China--Military policy. 3. China--Foreign relations--21st century. 4. National security--China. 5. Geopolitics--Asia.
I. Title.
U264.5.C6Z53 2015
355.02170951--dc23
2014029464
ISBN: 978-1-138-79925-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-75615-8 (ebk)
I would like to thank Lingnan University for granting me one term of academic leave in 2012 that allowed me to explore deeper into the literature of international relations theory. This leave afforded me a valuable opportunity to survey the field of international relations and enabled me to develop a coherent theoretical framework to tie up my previous research and publications on Chinas nuclear deterrent and SinoUS nuclear relationship.
