Reluctant Restraint: The Evolution of China's Nonproliferation Policies and Practices, 1980-2004

Studies in Asian Security

by Evan Medeiros

Reluctant Restraint examines one of the most important changes in Chinese foreign policy since the country opened to the China's gradual move to support the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, missiles, and their related goods and technologies. Once a critic of the global nonproliferation regime, China is now a supporter of it, although with some reservations. Medeiros analyzes how and why Chinese nonproliferation policies have evolved so substantially since the early 1980s. He argues that U.S. diplomacy has played a significant and enduring role in shaping China's gradual recognition of the dangers of proliferation, and in its subsequent altered behavior.

376 pages, Hardcover

First published December 6, 2007