How big is China’s nuclear stockpile? Benn Tannenbaum sends along this quote from Ed Corcoran who provides, er, a rather large range of estimates: China is neither ally nor adversary, but something in between. It is a nuclear power with a relatively modest arsenal of perhaps a couple hundred nuclear warheads, though some estimates do …
Shooting the Messenger (or not)
by | 2009-05-11 | 6 Comments
I was famously quoted in the New York Times (and in Newsweek) as saying about the failure of the April 5th, 2009 satellite launch attempt: It’s got to be embarrassing. I can imagine heads flying if the Dear Leader finds out the satellite didn’t fly into orbit. Not too many people have noted the if …
The Trouble With Zero
by | 2009-05-10 | 12 Comments
Image is credited to “Shout” in the NYT. Philip Taubman, a former New York Times reporter now writing a book at Stanford, has a wonderful survey of the debate about nuclear abolition in the New York Times entitled, The Trouble With Zero: Yet even as the allure of disarmament grows, the obstacles seem as daunting …
DF-21 Delta Confirmation
by | 2009-05-09 | 17 Comments
In October, I observed that the Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile was probably styled the DF-21 Delta, making it the fourth mod of the DF-21. (A journalist had referred to it as the DF-21 Charlie, which I think is just the plain vanilla conventionally-armed DF-21 variant). Looks like I was right. A senior defense official dropped …
