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China’s secret ambition for unlimited nuclear weapons growth – Wikileaks

Chinese officials privately admit that a desire for military advantage underpins continuing secrecy.

No nuclear limit: China, The Age, Philip Dorling, February 28, 2011 HIGH-RANKING Chinese officials have declared that there can be no limit to the expansion of Beijing’s nuclear arsenal, amid growing regional fears that it will eventually equal that of the United States, with profound consequences for the strategic balance in Asia.

Records of secret defence consultations between the US and China reveal that US diplomats have repeatedly failed to persuade the rising superpower to be more transparent about its nuclear forces and that Chinese officials privately admit that a desire for military advantage underpins continuing secrecy.

According to US diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to The Age, the deputy chief of China’s People’s Liberation Army General Staff, Ma Xiaotian, told US Defence and State Department officials in June 2008 that the growth of China’s nuclear forces was an ”imperative reality” and there could be “no limit on technical progress”……..

No nuclear limit: China

March 1, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, weapons and war