Increasing Arms Control Expertise in China
China is becoming an important player in international arms control negotiations. This will be more the case as the original nuclear weapon states (the United States, Russia, Britain, France, and China) and the recently declared states (India and Pakistan) negotiate additional constraints on their nuclear weapons programs and make deeper reductions in their arsenals. Also, because China has the potential to transfer nuclear and missile technology to other countries, it is important that it strengthen its export controls and participate in supplier control agreements. Accordingly, UCS is increasingly focusing its arms control work with international scientists on China.
In the past several years, the number of people working on arms control issues in China has increased dramatically. A decade ago there was almost no one with arms control expertise in China. But as China has become more willing to participate in arms control negotiations, the need for such expertise has become clear within China. Several of China's technical and military institutes, as well as some universities, have now established arms control programs. These researchers appear to have considerable interest in increasing contacts with western experts on arms control and security issues.
This situation presents an important opportunity for UCS to interact with and influence the thinking of Chinese scholars and policymakers who are interested in arms control. We are in a particularly good position to take advantage of this opportunity since over the past five years we have established contacts with a large number of Chinese arms control and security experts, especially within China's technical community. We have also developed a working relationship with a number of the key technical arms control groups. The growing importance of China in international affairs is a compelling reason to help train Chinese arms control experts, exchange ideas and information with them, and form a strong unofficial channel of communication between the Chinese arms control community and western scholars.
UCS's work with Chinese arms controllers has four main goals:
- to help train new researchers, thus increasing their level of expertise and insuring that they have a more international perspective on these issues when they return to China
- to increase contacts with more established Chinese arms control analysts
- to support academic researchers who are striving to present an independent point of view on arms control and security issues within China, and to increase their numbers
- to better understand Chinese policymaking on arms control and related issues, and thus be able to effectively participate in the (increasingly contentious) US debate on China
International Summer Symposiums
The International Summer Symposiums on Science and World Affairs that UCS co-organizes have included Chinese scientists from the beginning. Two of the symposiums have been held in China, which has allowed us to include a large number of young Chinese researchers in those meetings. Through the symposiums, we have gotten to know many of the young Chinese scientists who are being trained as the next generation of technical arms control experts. Indeed, China's current senior-level technical arms control experts have come to see the Summer Symposiums as important training opportunities and have worked with us in recent years to identify appropriate Chinese participants for these meetings and for more extended training opportunities. In the future, UCS's Visiting Scientist Fellowship Program will give preference to Chinese candidates.
