"Mad Men" may be over, but no one told Chinese President Xi Jinping. China's decision to put multiple warheads into its intercontinental ballistic missiles, an approach traditionally associated with a first-strike threat, is projecting China's stance back into a Cold War mindset. The development is symbolically significant, because China has had multiple warhead technology, known as MIRV, for years, but has never before chosen to deploy it. The decision puts the United States on notice that China won't react passively to increasing containment efforts in the Pacific. And it also tells a domestic audience that Xi's vision of the "Chinese dream" isn't simply economic but also deeply nationalistic and even militaristic.
It's not news that China has been taking an increasingly confrontational stance in the East and South China seas, staking claims to rocky, uninhabited islands and projecting naval force. What's remarkable about the warhead deployment is that it isn't primarily directed at China's Pacific neighbors, who don't have their own nuclear weapons — it's directed at the U.S.
At a micro level, China is making another move in an iterated game. The Americans moved to support Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in his expansion of Japan's defense forces. The Chinese then moved with the announcement of joint naval maneuvers with Russia in the Mediterranean.
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