49
46
This table is based on that in Langton, pp. 170-171. The Federation of American
Scientists website provides a far less definitive table at
www.fas.org/nuke/guide/china/agency/pla-inventory.htm, but includes the perceptive
caution that “Detailed listings of PLA equipment holdings are rather scarce in the
unclassified literature.”
47
Helo information is from www.sinodefence.com/airforce/aircraft/helicopter/wz9.asp.
The United States sold these helos to China in the 1980s, but has refusal to sell spare
parts to the PLA since the June 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
48
Author’s discussions with senior PLA officers.
49
This number includes 20-24 DF-5/5A missiles capable of reaching the U.S. East Coast,
and 12 DF-31 missiles that are able to range the western United States.
50
The number of nuclear warheads is uncertain; Langton, p. 252 and the Bulletin of
Atomic Scientists [www.thebulletin.org/article_nn.php?art_ofn=nd03norris] agree on a
maximum of approximately 400, from ICBM warheads to tactical weapons.
51
Bradley Roberts, unpublished paper presented at Washington, D.C. meeting, 26
January 2005. These points are cautiously presented by their author.
52
Evan Medeiros, “China’s Second Artillery and Concepts of Escalation Control in the
Taiwan Strait,” paper prepared for the CAPS-RAND-CEIP International Conference on
PLA Affairs, 21-22 October 2004, in Taipei, Taiwan, p. 5.
53
Ibid., pp. 6-7.
Convention