China’s present Nuclear Strategy

Abstract

Crutics of Communist China express the opinion that it is an irresponsible and dangerous nuclear power because of its alleged claim that a third world war is inevitable and that it would not matter much if even half of the world population were to die in that war. For example, the Soviet Union claimed that

To prevent a new world war is a real and quite feasible task. The 20th Congress of our party came to the extremely important conclusion that in our times there is no fatal inevitability of war between states. This conclusion is not the fruit of good intentions, but the result of a realistic, strictly scientific analysis of the balance of class forces on the world arena… And what is the position of the C.P.C. leadership? What do the theses that they propagate mean: an end cannot be put to wars so long as imperialism exists…

These theses mean that the Chinese comrades are acting contrary to the general course of the world communism movement in questions of war and peace. They do not believe in the possibility of preventing a new world war…¹