ABSTRACT
For nearly two decades, the leaders of the People's Republic of China (PRC) have avowedly and actively pursued the development of an independent nuclear deterrent. China at present remains the only nonwestern, developing state which has both tested nuclear weapons and deployed the associated means of delivery. China's goal to acquire nuclear weapons began to emerge publicly in the late spring of 1958. Not until the debate with Soviet officials on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963, in which China's virulent opposition to the treaty was expressed, did the perceptions and intentions underlying China's nuclear program emerge publicly. The official positions aired at that time as well as those publicized in more recent years have focused almost exclusively on the relationship of nuclear weapons to a state's foreign policy. For nearly twenty years, political and military leaders in China have sought to enhance their nation's power and security through the development and production of nuclear weaponry.
