CHINA calls each new edition of its most potent intercontinental ballistic missile East Wind. This lovely and suggestive name begs an assessment of China’s capabilities and intentions, because it appears to contradict what China tells us of itself and what is most reassuring for us to believe.
By geography, history, and tradition, China has been remarkably self-contained. It seems to have an artificial horizon that allows it to be content within its own sphere and to internalize its upheavals rather than export them. It rejects what it calls “power politics,” and shuns alliances. Of the almost 2.5 million soldiers of the world’s largest army, it has detailed only 32 for international peacekeeping duties, fewer than provided by Estonia. After going to war in Korea, India, and Vietnam, it simply withdrew, as if it found existence beyond its borders painful.
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