, Columnist
China Is Making the Same Mistakes the Soviets Did
Instead of massively expanding the country’s nuclear arsenal, Chinese leaders ought to focus on energizing its economy and technological prowess.
Guns before butter is still a bad idea.
Photographer: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images
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Few countries, perhaps not even Russia, have studied the fall of the Soviet Union as diligently as China has. In the early 1990s, the Chinese Communist Party assigned teams of researchers to the task. One of the key lessons they drew was that the Soviet Union’s arms race with the US ultimately bankrupted its economy and cost the regime its legitimacy.
Judging by the US Defense Department’s most recent report on the growth of China’s military capabilities, China appears to be forgetting that hard lesson.