Chinese nuclear command and control

This chapter studies the development pattern of Chinese nuclear command and control (C2) from 1964 to 1979. This time period is divided into three stages – inception, growth, and maturity. The categorisation of three stages is different for the Chinese case study as here the first two stages (inception and growth) are discussed together from 1964 to 1976 due to several technological and socio-political developments that occurred during this time frame that made it difficult to clearly demarcate the two stages. The maturity stage starts from 1976 and onwards. During these evolutionary stages, Mao’s idea of the People’s War greatly influenced Chinese nuclear force development and operations. Mao realised the need to change the conduct of war under modern conditions but his successor, Deng, was the one who started to materialise nuclear force modernisation. In contrast to Britain, China was faced with a relatively challenging international environment. The US, the USSR, and Britain signed the PTBT in 1963 and they had already tested H-bombs; however, concepts and technologies related to nuclear C2 were still evolving that provided key information for Chinese nuclear planners to learn about nuclear operations conducted by and crises experience by other NWS, most notably the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.