Brought to Heel

China's rising status as a nuclear power should keep Russia and its threats to use weapons of mass destruction in check, experts tell Newsweek

- BRENDAN COLE

“RUSSIA'S TESTING, AND CHINA'S TESTING, BUT THEY don’t talk about it,” was President Donald Trump's bold claim to CBS News about the U.S. adversaries’ nuclear weapons. China rejected this, but its growing atomic arsenal and attitude toward it could be a brake on Russia's flirtation with nuclear war.

“China is very reluctant to play a nuclear brinkmanship game, and that certainly has a calming effect on, and restrains, Russia,” said Ukrainian historian Serhii Plokhy, whose latest book, The Nuclear Age, charts the atomic weapons race.

Beijing is officially neutral on President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine but positive in its role as Moscow’s chief economic partner since Russia invaded its neighbor on February 24, 2022, with trade between the countries swelling to record levels. As they tout their “no limits” partnership, one boundary remains for China’s leader Xi Jinping when it comes to breaking the “nuclear taboo” on weapons, warning Putin against their use, according to reports later backed by former Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“I expect China to continue to build up its arsenal and then hold others back from using nuclear weapons,” Plokhy said, “because this is not in China’s interest.”

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S., told Newsweek: “As a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and a responsible nuclear-weapon state, China has always adhered to the path of peaceful development, pursued a no-first-use policy on nuclear weapons, upheld a self-defense nuclear strategy, and consistently maintained its nuclear forces at the minimum level required for national security, while also abiding by its commitment to a moratorium on nuclear testing.

“China will work with all parties to jointly safeguard the authority of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and uphold the international nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation regime.”