S8 Ep159: PREVIEW — Peter Huessy — China Adopts Russia's Tactical Nuclear Doctrine. Peter Huessy analyzes the rapid expansion of non-strategic nuclear arsenals by Russia and China, documenting Beijing's strategic adoption of Moscow's "escalate to win" doctrine emph

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 1 minutes

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Summary

PREVIEW — Peter Huessy — China Adopts Russia's Tactical Nuclear Doctrine. Peter Huessy analyzes the rapid expansion of non-strategic nuclear arsenals by Russia and China, documenting Beijing's strategic adoption of Moscow's"escalate to win" doctrine emphasizing tactical battlefield nuclear weapons. Huessy explains that China is systematically developing tactical nuclear capabilities explicitly designed to function as instruments of military coercion and diplomatic leverage intended to deter American military intervention in potential Taiwan conflict scenarios. Huessy emphasizes that this doctrinal shift represents a fundamental escalation in regional nuclear threat posture, creating unprecedented strategic instability and raising the prospect of tactical nuclear weapons employment in conventional military operations contrary to decades of international non-use norms.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is John Baxter, a conversation with my colleague Peter Husey about nuclear arsenals in Russia and in China.
0:08.1	In particular, battlefield weapons, non-strategic, tactical weapons, smaller nukes.
0:15.3	Russia has long boasted about theirs and rattled them out.
0:18.1	But what about China?
0:19.6	Peter gives a very comprehensive answer.
0:21.6	China, the no-limits partner of Russia, and tactical nukes, non-strategic nukes, and why?
0:29.6	More of this tonight.
0:31.6	Yes, because we're beginning to find out that the Chinese have a great number of theater or non-strategic
0:40.0	nuclear weapons. And Russia, long ago, back in 1999, adopted a policy called Escalate to Win.
0:46.9	And it was a Yeltsin-Signed document, which probably Putin wrote. And it said, develop battlefield, small-scale, usable nuclear weapons that can get the enemy to back down in a conflict.
0:59.6	So, yes, China is on the road to that as well, because as I said, they see nuclear weapons as wonderful instruments of diplomacy and coercion, and they want to use them basically to keep us out of the fight completely.

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