ABSTRACT
China’s military modernization is the fourth of the “Four Modernizations” first announced by Zhou Enlai in 1975 and implemented as national policy by Deng Xiaoping since his assumption of power in 1978. China’s security interests were served by having a strong American presence in the Asia-Pacific region to deter the Soviet Union and, at the same time, having leaders in Moscow seeking ways to reduce tensions with the People’s Republic of China. China’s doctrine of retaliating with its minimal nuclear force against Soviet cities is based upon the concepts of superpower parity and the doctrine of mutual assured destruction. China is also developing a number of small 20,000-ton aircraft carriers, similar to the Australian Melbourne. Parallel policies likely will include removing the Soviet presence from around China’s eastern and southern borders. Opposing policies will probably remain in the case of Taiwan and China’s propensity to claim large portions of the South China Sea as its territorial waters.
