Introduction
“Paper tiger” is a term the Chinese use to refer to someone or something that seems threatening and powerful but is ineffectual and cannot be challenged. The slogan became famous when Mao Zedong, China’s supreme leader and Chinese Communist Party chairman, used it to refer to his political rivals, especially America. It appears irrational, based on military doctrines and Western political science, for communist Chinese leaders to consider superpowers “paper tigers.”
It is also unreasonable that they use the phrase to refer to atomic bombs because they have prioritized the creation of nuclear capability. Nevertheless, the Communist press has repeatedly referred to Soviet Union leaders, Great Britain, and the United States as “paper tigers” since the Chinese Blew their first nuclear bomb on 16th October 1964. The same metaphor has been used to define other entities and opponents in certain variations and capacities.
Historical Background
Long before the establishment of a structural government, China was fractured due to the influence of numerous warlords and local military rulers. Chiang Kai-Shek (1887-1975) was the Chinese leader who initiated a military offensive in 1927 to try and reunify the nation under his reign (Mills, 2022). Chiang collaborated with the fast-growing Communist movement in his offensive to take control.
The communists were fighting to eliminate private property as they believed that the entire community should own products and have the means to produce them instead of a single person. After Chiang took over Shanghai, he turned against the communists and nearly killed all of them. He then used the nationalist forces to try and eradicate the remaining communists in the country.
One of the survivors, Mao Zedong, gathered the remaining communist group in central China and turned it into a formidable army. The communist forces also hosted Zhou Enlai, the future founder and foreign minister of Communist China, and Peng Dehuai, the prospective leader of China’s communist army in the Korean War (Kulacki, 2023). Chiang’s forces conducted a successful offensive that made the communists flee. The remaining forces of about ten thousand men established a new base and recognized Mao Zedong as their leader. Despite Chiang being unsuccessful in eliminating the Communists, he, on one occasion, allied with the Communists to fight Japan, a common enemy who was occupying China in the 1930s.
After the Second World War ended, both groups resumed their conflict. However, America preferred to back Chiang, and Zedong was not pleased. In 1946, Zedong faced forth against a new foe (America), who had just dropped nuclear bombs on two Japanese towns, killing tens of thousands of individuals (Kulacki, 2023).
Mao introduced the phrase to Americans during an interview with Ann Louise Strong, an American journalist, in 1946 (Kulacki, 2023). He referred to the nuclear bomb as a “paper tiger” that American extremists use to make people afraid (Kulacki, 2023). He noted that the bomb was a weapon of the massacre, but the people, not weapons, decided the outcome of the war. Thus, the reactionaries seemed terrifying, but they were not powerful in reality. China lacked the resources and technology that other huge countries had because of decades of civil war and occupation. However, Mao noted in his “Paper Tiger” statement that China had a large population that could endure the death toll caused by the possible nuclear bombing of the country.
China’s Nuclear Ambitions
Mao was right when he said the development of nuclear forces would be unimportant in upcoming conflicts. The Chinese may have built their first nuclear bomb in 1964, but only two bombs have been used, and the last was about 78 decades ago in Nagasaki (Kulacki, 2023). However, the current military practices in China still believe that they could be used, and this has raised security concerns for the Pacific and East Asian regions.
Japan and South Korea, two of China’s neighbors, are concerned about the country’s growing military might. They may eventually be obligated to adopt nuclear weapons because they struggle to create the right warning capabilities to enact a strategic, stable power balance (Kulacki, 2023). However, China has warned that any country that wants to balance against it should take a favorable approach when going nuclear because a move like that would not prevent an invasion.
The disregard for nuclear weapons can be seen in the Chinese political and military thinking since the communist reign. Mao made the ‘People’s War’ fighting policy his main facet because he believed that people’s institutions could win conflicts irrespective of disparities in military abilities (Kulacki, 2023). Nonetheless, targeted education and propaganda inspired people at home, making it impossible for the Maoist forces to be defeated with modern arms and strategies. Equally, comprehensive weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear and air power, would not be significant in a conflict with China (Kulacki, 2023). A famous example of this was the Korean War, where Chinese infantry with inadequate equipment was able to crush United Nations armies by using night-time assaults, large numbers, and terrain.
Even today, despite having several, China is not keen on using nuclear weapons. It is unknown how many weapons China has, but several estimates put it at around 1,000 to 2,000 (Mills, 2022). The US Department of State has approximated that China has about 150 to 250 warheads (Mills, 2022).
China claims to own the smallest nuclear arsenal, under the 200 nuclear deterrents of the United Kingdom (Mills, 2022). Furthermore, China is the only nuclear-armed nation to provide a security pledge promising never to deploy its armament against non-nuclear armed opponents or in nuclear-weapon-free regions (Mills, 2022). However, its nuclear arsenal achieves more of a psychological necessity than a military one, and it comes at a sheer cost.
The Price of Fear
It might have been expensive for China to fund the nuclear weapons program, but the price of China’s international relations caused by the program is steep. China was seen as a future leader by Chinese communists, even though they did not develop the term “third world” (Kulacki, 2020). During the 1955 Bandung Conference of newly sovereign African and Asian Countries, China was to be handed the mantle (Kulacki, 2020).
The conference started a month after the US openly threatened China with nuclear deterrents (Kulacki, 2020). However, China was not genuine when supporting the anti-nuclear philosophy of the conference because it had already launched its nuclear weapons program. China made a speech at its first atomic bomb test in 1964 that appeared to be a request for forgiveness for the treachery and said that the US had given them no other choice.
Chinese Leaders claimed that the bomb was a huge motivation to the world’s revolutionary individuals, but it was not. The bomb alienated China from other third-world countries it wished to lead. Additionally, it turned the leaders into hypocrites who believed they were defending an unfair and inequitable international system but were actually divided into proponents and opponents of nuclear weapons. Those against it had gathered to create, ratify, and sign a new global treaty that bans all nuclear weapons (Kulacki, 2020). How the current leadership responds will determine the country’s international standing for many years.
China may not be keen on nuclear issues, but it uses other conventional methods, such as large-scale production of military equipment, to keep its enemies at bay. Recent military advancements include intercontinental ballistic missiles, which can accurately supply payloads to long-range targets. Nuclear warheads can be used in some missiles, but the country’s leaders suggest they are mainly used for counteracting limited military assets (Kulacki, 2020). It includes their use against the US and other foreign naval forces that can arbitrate regional conflict. Additional advancements have focused on producing and modernizing advanced water naval units and fighter bombers to attain its regional security goals (Kulacki, 2020). The country already uses huge submarine units to show regional power and protect its shipping interests.
The Importance of Courage
China must be extraordinarily courageous to rejoin the states with no nuclear weapons. Since the US government considers China as a rival, it is understandable why the country decided to produce nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, Mao’s comprehension of the limitations of nuclear deterrents and the probability that they might never be used encouraged him to face America’s nuclear threats during the Taiwan Strait Crisis and in Korea (Kulacki, 2020). President Xi Jinping can absorb similar courage and wisdom to defeat America’s efforts to contain, isolate, and stigmatize China.
The United States’ issue against China is that it has transformed into a great power trying to challenge global order and frighten its neighbors when pursuing its interests. The only way China can undermine that issue is to respect the international community’s will and surrender its nuclear status (Kulacki, 2020). The verdict would positively affect its neighbors, particularly India and Japan. It would ease dialogues on territorial disputes, allow a moment of cooperative goodwill, and minimize the need for huge American military standing in the Indo-Pacific (Kulacki, 2020).
The rest of the world would also see China from a different point of view. Potential friends like Europe would have a more favorable perception of Chinese information systems and the Belt and Road plan. More thoughtful consideration would also be given to Chinese opinions for a more equitable and just international system.
Conclusion
Mao Zedong satirized nuclear weapons as “paper tigers” in 1946 when he viewed China struggling for security in conventional warfare. He could barely comprehend why the imperialists preferred to use atomic bombs in countries they wanted to take over. Weapons of mass destruction could not achieve the goal of obtaining political control because they could only terminate what they wished to control.
However, as he learned the deterrent importance of nuclear weapons, he slowly changed his position. The three main factors that supported his nuclear revolution were Soviet coercion, American nuclear threats, and Chinese officials’ demands that he recognize the importance of nuclear weapons. Therefore, the defining policy in China is based on his thinking on nuclear weapons and resulted in policy transformations that made the country a nuclear power.
References
Kulacki, G. (2020). Paper tigers: The case against China’s nuclear weapons. Web.
Kulacki, G. (2023). US-China relations and nuclear weapons in Northeast Asia. Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 1-13. Web.
Mills, C. (2022). Nuclear weapons at a glance: China. Commons Library Research Briefing, 1-19. Web.