'Shaming' China Into Talking About Arms Control Won't Work

Demanding that China start talking about arms control seems certain to blow up in Washington’s face.

Zachary Keck wants the U.S. to “shame” China into talking about arms control:

The U.S. should keep this lesson in mind as it deals with China’s expanding nuclear arsenal. For years, Washington has tried quiet diplomacy to convince Beijing to join nuclear arms-control discussions. Strategic patience has failed. It’s time to begin negotiating in public and pressuring Chinese leaders to come to the table or else be rightly blamed for the growing arms race.

The U.S. and China should open a dialogue on arms control, but I don’t see how publicly berating the government with the much smaller nuclear arsenal is going to lead to productive talks about anything. When arms control negotiations succeeded in the past with the Soviets and then the Russians, those negotiations usually took place against a backdrop of détente and the reduction of tensions. U.S.-Chinese relations are as bad as they have been for decades, and given the recent U.S. record on trashing arms control treaties Beijing would have little reason to take American appeals seriously.