19641June16th, China's first atomic bomb exploded successfully in lop Nur, Xinjiang. In the past 50 years, although some western public opinion often pointed fingers at China's nuclear policy and nuclear weapons, China has always emphasized "no first use" of nuclear weapons and firmly promised never to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon States and nuclear-weapon-free zones. A China strategic expert told the Global Times reporter: "The purpose of China's development of nuclear weapons is to eventually eliminate nuclear weapons." According to the chairman of the British non-governmental research organization "Campaign for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons", in the past half century, China has not threatened the world or gained regional interests because of its possession of nuclear weapons, but China's attitude is a responsible nuclear country.
"China has an atomic bomb, but it has not triggered a world nuclear war."
"To tell you the truth, Mr. Johnson (then President of the United States), when China has no nuclear weapons, it has no fear of your nuclear threat. China now has nuclear weapons, which can certainly enhance our national defense, but we have never built our sense of security on nuclear weapons. " This is a passage from an important article entitled "Breaking Nuclear Monopoly and Eliminating Nuclear Weapons" published in People's Daily 1964 on October 22nd, which reflects China's national position after possessing nuclear weapons, and also reflects the distinctive brand of the times.
Looking back at that important history, Yang, a senior researcher at the National Security Policy Committee, told the Global Times reporter: "On the afternoon of June1964+1October 16, China successfully tested an atomic bomb. On that day, People's Daily published an important editorial, clearly stating that China's nuclear policy is "no first use" and firmly promising never to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries and nuclear-free zones, emphasizing that the important ideas put forward in this editorial are still used in China today and have become our firm basic national policy. " He revealed that many terms in the editorial were written and revised by President Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai, and they still look accurate, clear and magnificent today.
"China successfully conducted an atomic bomb test on its own, forcing the United States to fall into a state where China cannot be ignored." "China's nuclear test is a decisive destruction of the fixed international relations centered on the United States and the Soviet Union, and has pushed the world towards multipolarization." These were the main themes when the international media reported the success of China's first atomic bomb explosion half a century ago. Even at that time, there were many "protests" against China's nuclear test in Japan, and even the Tokyo Olympic Games, which had just been held for a week, added a layer of "sense of urgency". The telegram of * * * news agency/KOOC-0/964/KOOC-0/KOOC-0/October/KOOC-0/8 also said: "China's nuclear test is no less than/KOOC-.
Japanese Foreign Ministry officials admit that China won the title of "Asia's largest country" by entering the exclusive nuclear "club", and it is difficult to exclude "China, the producer" from the international family. The Yomiuri Shimbun said in an editorial entitled "Excited World and Japan": "The extraordinary changes that have occurred one after another, such as Khrushchev's stepping down, China's nuclear test and the victory of the British Labor Party, are important events with epoch-making significance in post-war international politics." The Swedish Daily said: "It is ironic that China exploded the atomic bomb immediately after Khrushchev stepped down." United press international said: "The psychological impact is enormous. For the first time, a non-white country revealed the most profound secrets of military technology. China people have set foot in a field that only Westerners can enter in the past. "
10/3 1964 10 "National Avant-garde" magazine said: "China's move is not only a warning to Washington, but also to Tokyo." Under the pressure of the United States, Tokyo is becoming the official nuclear base of the US Air Force and submarines. Under the situation that both the Soviet Union and China now possess nuclear weapons, only by strictly observing the policy of nuclear neutrality can Japan safely avoid nuclear war. "Voice of Russia" reported in February 20 12 that "the United States tried to nip China's nuclear weapons program in the bud in the 1960s, but was afraid of triggering a world war and finally gave up". The article finally said, "Sure enough, although China had an atomic bomb, it did not trigger a world nuclear war. ".
Fifty years later, foreign powers have a clearer understanding of China's possession of nuclear weapons. On June 5th, 5438+05, German Global News Network10 commented on the important historical event of "50 years since China successfully tested a nuclear bomb for the first time", saying that nuclear weapons are only the development achievement of a rising power in the Far East, and now China has become a "leader" in various fields and a big country that manufactures mobile phones, smart TVs, high-speed trains and automobiles. The article entitled "China's Nuclear Strategy: Necessary Minimum" published by Moscow Communist Youth League on June 5438+1October 65438+April 4 stated that 50 years have passed since China conducted its first nuclear weapons test in June 5438+0964, and China has developed a certain number of new nuclear weapons and conducted many tests. China joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1992 and signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996.
"China's sole purpose in developing its nuclear arsenal is to avoid nuclear blackmail."
China's nuclear policy of "no first use of nuclear weapons" has been the most discussed by the outside world. Gregory Kulacki, director of the China Project of the American Union of Concerned Scientists, recently wrote: "In June 65438+10/October 65438+June, China will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the success of its first nuclear test. On the same day of 1964, the government of China issued a statement that China would not be the first to use nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances.
Over the past 50 years, the government of China has reiterated this statement many times, the most recent being in April this year. In his view, the statement seems to be a moral declaration or a symbolic act, but it also reflects China's realistic consideration, that is, for China, any scenario of using nuclear weapons will have adverse consequences for China. Therefore, avoiding nuclear blackmail is the only purpose for China to develop its nuclear arsenal. The Indian Zeenew website published in April this year: "China is the first country in the world to promise not to use nuclear weapons first, but Pakistan has not made such a promise." In fact, India has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
Moscow Youth Daily mentioned that the white paper on national defense published by China clearly pointed out that it will continue to follow the principle of no-first-use of nuclear weapons in the foreseeable future and show its peace-loving stance to the outside world. The number of nuclear weapons in China will be kept to a minimum, but the number of nuclear weapons in China has always been a secret to the outside world. China claims that its number of nuclear weapons does not exceed that of Britain, so it can be predicted that China has more than 200 nuclear weapons. China understands that there is little possibility of a nuclear war. Therefore, it only keeps a minimum of nuclear weapons in order to impose nuclear containment on some countries.
It is predicted that before 20021,the number of China's nuclear strategic forces will not change greatly, and China will still protect a small number of nuclear shields, but it can effectively counter some countries. Russia's Independent Military Review commented in May this year that although China's nuclear power lags far behind that of Russia and the United States, it is the only country among all nuclear countries that has publicly promised not to be the first to use nuclear weapons. China's principle is to have a minimum nuclear deterrent to protect national security.
There are also international scholars who believe that "China's nuclear arsenal is too small and single compared with the United States and Russia, and its alert status is too low", but it turns out that China's nuclear policy is very effective and ingenious. On March 5, last year, the Japanese website "Haiphong Magazine" said that in the past 20 years, China's strategic ballistic missiles have not yet reached mass production, and the increase in the number of nuclear weapons has been controlled. "The reason why China's nuclear weapons do not constitute nuclear retaliation against big cities in the United States is because China has kept its nuclear weapons capabilities to a minimum."
Even so, the development of China's nuclear weapons force still makes some people in the United States have doubts. The website of Freedom Lighthouse 10 10/3 reported that the draft annual report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission indicated that China's nuclear strike force was unknown, which was intended to keep "strategic ambiguity". Robert Farley, an associate professor at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Business in the United States, often publishes articles in this year's bimonthly issue of National Interest with the topics "Should the United States be worried about China's nuclear weapons" and "Should the United States be wary of China's five military" trump cards "? Farley believes that China is improving and reorganizing its nuclear arsenal. For example, the development of the "Dongfeng -4 1" intercontinental missile shows that China no longer emphasizes "minimum deterrence" but instead ensures a second strike. Some western articles also said that compared with the rich experience in launching land-based missiles, China lacked experience in commanding and controlling nuclear submarines in the past, but China is constantly enhancing its "trinity" nuclear strike capability. There is also the Russian media's rendering that China's first mobile ballistic missile "Dongfeng -3 1B" has a range of tens of thousands of kilometers, which can reach the European part of the United States or Russia, and it is difficult for people to capture its launch information.
"After China's nuclear weapons test was successful, the' Yellow Disaster Theory' spread in the West, but history has confirmed that China is a responsible nuclear country and has not threatened the world and other countries." Florian Lupe, an expert on China in Berlin, told the Global Times reporter on June 6, 2008. He believes that as a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, China has set an example in nuclear disarmament and safeguarding world peace.
Looking back on the past 50 years, Yang said that China, as a responsible nuclear-armed country, will never compare the number and scale of nuclear weapons with the nuclear powers, only reflecting "you have what I have" and "four or two"; We use various technologies and management methods to achieve nuclear safety; China has solemnly committed to and achieved nuclear non-proliferation, but on this issue, the western nuclear powers have adopted different positions and standards for different countries, without treating them equally.
Volhonsky, an expert at the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies, is also very dissatisfied with the US approach. Last year, he mentioned that "the United States has adopted a frustrating double standard on the issue of countries that actually possess nuclear weapons" and that "the only country in the world that has used nuclear weapons in real wars is the United States, and the use of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is aimed at local civilians".
"China has not used nuclear weapons to coerce regional interests."
At present, there are many discrepancies in the statistics of global nuclear weapons by various think tanks, and it is estimated that there are about 20 thousand nuclear weapons. According to the data of 20 13 yearbook of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the total number of nuclear warheads in the world is decreasing: among them, the United States has reduced from 8,000 to 7,700, and actually deployed nuclear warheads 1722; Russia has been reduced from 1 1,000 to 8,500, and the actual deployment is about 1 1,500; France 300, Britain 225; Among the "nuclear threshold countries", there are 80 in Israel, 90 in Pakistan 120 and 90 in India 1 10.
The world maintains the nuclear strategic pattern of "two superpowers and many powerful countries", but the "preemptive strike" principle of some nuclear-armed countries still poses a great threat to China and other countries. RIA Novosti10 June 5438+03 quoted Kashin, an expert from the Russian Center for Strategic and Technical Analysis, as saying, "China will become the third largest nuclear weapon country sooner or later, breaking the bipolar pattern of monopoly nuclear deterrence between Russia and the United States. If China has too few nuclear weapons, it will face an increasing threat of nuclear attack. ".
Looking forward to the future world nuclear situation, it is said that the current international nuclear situation is not optimistic. While reducing the number of nuclear weapons, the nuclear powers are still investing heavily to continue to improve the quality and actual combat level of nuclear weapons; A few countries are still trying to improve their international status by developing nuclear weapons and continue to produce and store nuclear materials; International terrorist organizations are also trying their best to obtain nuclear materials. He believes that there is still a long way to go to truly realize the goal of "zero nuclear world". But what is certain is that with the enhancement of China's comprehensive national strength, the promotion of its international status and the development of nuclear technology, China will play an increasingly important role in the historical process of curbing the development, use, proliferation and eventual elimination of nuclear weapons.
In an interview with the Global Times, kate hudson, chairman of the British non-governmental research organization Campaign for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, said that in the past half century, China did not threaten the world in foreign and national defense policies because of its possession of nuclear weapons, nor did China form a so-called military alliance with other nuclear-armed countries, and used its nuclear weapons to coerce regional interests. On the contrary, China, as a nuclear country, often faces the provocations of some non-nuclear countries, which seems incomprehensible in reason. Hudson emphasized that China's posture is exactly what a nuclear country should have. He hoped that China would continue to exert more international influence on nuclear disarmament, especially on the North Korean nuclear issue and the Iranian nuclear issue, so that the countries concerned would completely give up the illusion of becoming regional powers by possessing nuclear weapons.
Extended data:
Nuclear weapons refer to weapons of great destruction related to nuclear reactions, including hydrogen bombs, atomic bombs, neutron bombs, three-phase bombs and antimatter bombs.
When a nuclear weapon explodes, it releases much more energy than a conventional weapon containing only chemical explosives. For example, the energy released by 1 kg uranium fission is about 8×10/3 joules, which is about 20 million times larger than that released by 1 kg TNT explosive. Therefore, the total energy released by the explosion of nuclear weapons, that is, its power, is often expressed by the amount of TNT explosive that releases the same energy, which is called TNT equivalent. The TNT equivalent of various nuclear weapons equipped by the United States, Russia and other countries is as small as 1000 tons, or even lower. There are already miniature nuclear weapons with explosive equivalent of dozens of tons. As large as 6.5438+million tons, the former Soviet Union once tested 50 million tons of hydrogen bombs.
China Nuclear Weapons-Baidu Encyclopedia