Nearly 60 years ago, on Oct. 16, 1964, China exploded its first nuclear device. That very same day, Beijing announced that it would “never at any time or under any circumstances be the first to use nuclear weapons.” Nor, the Chinese government later declared, would it ever use or threaten the use of nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states.
This “no first use” (NFU) pledge has since become an unwavering, immutable component of China’s nuclear policy and posture. Maj. Gen. Pan Zhenqiang (retired) spoke for the entire Chinese strategic establishment when he called it a “cornerstone of China’s nuclear strategy.” It has been a constant in every conference or conversation with Chinese counterparts that I have attended over the last 20 years or more (and there have been a lot).
China insists that NFU makes sense not just for China, but for the world. In a paper for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Pan noted that when Beijing first announced its own NFU policy, it called on the U.S. to adopt a similar approach. China continues to do so at every conference and meeting, official and otherwise.