Prospects For The Development Of The Chinese Nuclear Forces Were Discussed At The PIR Center Midweek Brainstorming Session

MOSCOW, OCTOBER 28, 2021. PIR PRESS. “Discussion about Chinese doctrinal approaches in China is “a blind man’s attempt to describe an elephant,” since there is great uncertainty in the doctrinal documents. The wording “resisting coercion by the hegemon” gives the PRC a lot of room for maneuver in terms of determining forces and means., – Sergey Semenov, coordinator of the PIR Center Nuclear Nonproliferation & Russia Program.

On October 21, PIR Center held a workshop within the framework of the Midweek Brainstorming sessions series“Prospects for the development of the PRC’s nuclear forces in the context of the specifics of ideological approaches and understanding of strategic stability” The research project prepared by Vladimir Nezhdanov, an assistant of Tyumen State University, in free association with the PIR Center, was presented for discussion.

PIR Center Founder & Director Vladimir Orlov welcomed the participants. According to him, “Each expert in the field of international security questions what is the composition of the Chinese nuclear arsenal, what is Chinese planning, which is addressed to the internal audience, which is external. Where the intersection point, which will allow us based on open sources to give objective and competent assessments, including for Russian foreign policy and military-political planning”. He continued that the PIR Center was trying to find answers within the framework of the project “Prospects of the Russian-Chinese Dialogue on Global Security, Nuclear Nonproliferation, and Arms Control” which is implemented from this year and is based on previous operations of the PIR Center.

Vladimir Nezhdanov began his speech with the specifics of the perception of international relations in China. The speaker paid special attention to the terminological and ideological features of the PRC’s discourse on military-strategic issues. Thus, it was noted that in modern Chinese military-political thought, strategic stability is understood as political trust and respect of states towards each other.

The state of world political stability is characterized by Chinese experts as alarming, which is reflected in the growing instability and uncertainty in the international arena. According to the speaker, some increase in the size of the Chinese nuclear forces is most likely. At the same time, Beijing will not strive for quantitative parity with the Russian Federation and the United States; it is more important for it to master the same weapons systems.

Vladimir Nezhdanov’s speech aroused the interest of the audience: there were both detailed expert comments and discussion questions. During the discussion, the role of the PRC in the process of the nuclear five, the latest activity of the PRC associated with the construction of several mining areas, as well as doctrinal documents reflecting Chinese specifics were discussed.

Based on the results of a workshop within the framework of the Midweek Brainstorming sessions series, the work was accepted for publication in Security Index.

The recording of the event can be watched via the link.