Richard Weitz: Even If New START Is Extended, Strategic Arms Control Will Die Unless China Is Involved in New Treaties
... Getting China involved in nuclear arms limitations is difficult. China, of course, has always been involved in the more extensive nuclear negotiations in recent decades: it has joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Unlike the U.S. and Russia, China has a No First Use (NFU) doctrine, saying the PLA will never use nuclear weapons first. Chinese officials say that they are uninterested in joining Russian-US agreements like INF and New START since they have fewer nuclear weapons than Russia or the U.S. They also claim, not very credibly, that their weapons do not threaten other countries. A more recent argument one hears in Beijing is that it's impractical and too complex to enlarge ...