China's Assertive Nuclear Posture: State Security in an Anarchic International Order by Baohui Zhang

Author:Baohui Zhang [Zhang, Baohui]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, International Relations, General, Security (National & International), Social Science, Ethnic Studies
ISBN: 9781138799257
Google: XM3GoQEACAAJ
Goodreads: 22942688
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-01-15T07:05:02+00:00

China’s indigenous missile defense capabilities

While China has sought to counter US missile defense through an integrated nuclear-space warfare strategy, it has made additional doctrinal changes to its nuclear posture to ensure effective deterrence. These include China’s efforts to build an indigenous missile defense system, which has seen rapid progress in recent years.

This effort by China to supplement its offensive nuclear capabilities with defensive ones represents a major change to its nuclear doctrine. For decades, China has been criticizing US missile defense for upsetting the existing balance of power and potentially weakening global stability. However, in recent years China has begun to pursue its own missile defense capabilities in order to ensure the effectiveness of its nuclear deterrence.

Interestingly, China attempted to build an indigenous missile defensive system during the 1960s and 1970s. According to recently released information, Mao Zedong met with Qian Qisen, the founder of China’s ballistic missile program in February 1964 to discuss China’s need for missile defense.38 This was motivated by the worsening relationship with the Soviet Union and China’s concerns for pre-emptive nuclear attacks by the two superpowers.

The following effort by China was code-named Project 640, which involved both anti-missile interceptors and long-range early warning and tracking radar. The interceptor was code-named Fanji-1 (Counter Attack-1), which was a two-stage missile with semi-active radar guidance. According to the Chinese information, China twice tested Fanji-1 in August 1979 and achieved successful results. The PLA was satisfied with the results and planned to build China’s first anti-missile system around Beijing to defend against strategic attacks by other countries.39

In the meantime, China also developed the matching 7010 long-range early warning and tracking radar. The radar was successfully developed in 1976 and then deployed in Xuanhua of Hebei province, about 200 kilometers from Beijing. The radar, measuring 40x20 meters, had a detection range of 3000 kilometers. According to Chinese sources, on July 18, 1981 the radar successfully tracked a long-range Soviet rocket being tested in the Pacific Ocean and accurately identified its lunch and landing spots as well as its flight range.40

However, Project 640 was canceled in March 1980 due to a combination of factors. First, the USA and the Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 1972, which put political pressure on China’s missile defense system.

Second, by the early 1980s China had shifted its national focus from security to economic development. The post-Mao Chinese leadership made important changes in its assessments of the prospect of major wars and believed that the international environment of China was largely benign. This assessment motivated the Chinese leadership to downsize its military and freeze existing programs.

The emergence of US defensive capabilities, however, has caused new Chinese assessments of potential threats to the effectiveness of its nuclear deterrent. As discussed in this chapter and the previous one, the steady maturing of a multi-layered US missile defense system has shifted China’s perception of the reliability of its nuclear deterrent. The result has been the revival of China’s own missile defense system. Recent evidence indicates that China has decided to modify its nuclear deterrence posture by supplementing offense with defense.

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