Advertisement

       SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

       Supported by

       SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

       Fear and Ambition Propel Xi’s Nuclear Acceleration

       China’s leader built up a nuclear arsenal, steeling for a growing rivalry with the United States. Now China is exploring how to wield its newfound strength.

       Share full articleShare free access

       Read in app

       A military parade in Beijing in 2019. As China’s nuclear options have grown, its military strategists are looking to nuclear weapons as not just a defensive shield, but as a potential sword. Credit...Kyodo News, via Getty Images

       By Chris Buckley

       Reporting from Taipei, Taiwan

       Feb. 4, 2024, 12:01 a.m. ET

       Get it sent to your inbox.

       Nineteen days after taking power as China’s leader, Xi Jinping convened the generals overseeing the country’s nuclear missiles and issued a blunt demand. China had to be ready for possible confrontation with a formidable adversary, he said, signaling that he wanted a more potent nuclear capability to counter the threat.

       Their force, he told the generals, was a “pillar of our status as a great power.” They must, Mr. Xi said, advance “strategic plans for responding under the most complicated and difficult conditions to military intervention by a powerful enemy,” according to an official internal summary of his speech in December 2012 to China’s nuclear and conventional missile arm, then called the Second Artillery Corps, which was verified by The New York Times.

       Publicly, Mr. Xi’s remarks on nuclear matters have been sparse and formulaic. But his comments behind closed doors, revealed in the speech, show that anxiety and ambition have driven his transformative buildup of China’s nuclear weapons arsenal in the past decade.

       From those early days, Mr. Xi signaled that a robust nuclear force was needed to mark China’s ascent as a great power. He also reflected fears that China’s relatively modest nuclear weaponry could be vulnerable against the United States — the “powerful enemy” — with its ring of Asian allies.

       Advertisement

       SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

       Now, as China’s nuclear options have grown, its military strategists are looking to nuclear weapons as not only a defensive shield, but as a potential sword — to intimidate and subjugate adversaries. Even without firing a nuclear weapon, China could mobilize or brandish its missiles, bombers and submarines to warn other countries against the risks of escalating into brinkmanship.

       Image

       Since his first days as China’s top leader, Xi Jinping has signaled that a robust nuclear force was needed to mark China’s ascent as a great power. Credit...Li Gang/Xinhua, via Getty Images

       Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.

       Chris Buckley, the chief China correspondent for The Times, reports on China and Taiwan from Taipei, focused on politics, social change and security and military issues. More about Chris Buckley

       A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 4, 2024, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: China Builds Up Nuclear Arsenal . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

       Share full articleShare free access

       Read in app

       Advertisement

       SKIP ADVERTISEMENT