The Biden Administration's Nuclear Posture and Missile Defense Reviews: Implications for the U.S.-China Nuclear Relationship

Abstract:The Biden Administration's Nuclear Posture Review and Missile Defense Review are drawing close attention from Chinese policymakers and strategists. These documents advance "a strategy focused on the People's Republic of China" and call for the United States to "act urgently to sustain and strengthen U.S. deterrence." This presentation will discuss how the Chinese nuclear policy community has been reading and reacting to these US policy documents, and what the new policy guidelines and Chinese reactions mean for the future of the bilateral nuclear and strategic stability relationship.

Bio: Tong Zhao is a visiting research scholar at the Program on Science & Global Security at Princeton University. He is also a senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, normally based in Beijing. His research focuses on strategic security issues, including nuclear weapons policy, arms control, nonproliferation, missile defense, hypersonic weapons, and China's security and foreign policy. He is the author of "Tides of Change: China's Nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarines and Strategic Stability" and "Narrowing the U.S.-China Gap on Missile Defense: How to Help Forestall a Nuclear Arms Race."