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1965 China Q. 55 (1965)
Great Powers and Atomic Bombs Are Paper Tigers

handle is hein.journals/chnaquar6 and id is 517 raw text is: Great Powers and Atomic Bombs are Paper Tigers By RALPH L. POWELL IN terms of Western political science or military doctrine it seems somewhat irrational that the leaders of Communist China should refer to great powers as paper tigers. It appears even more illogical that they should call atomic bombs paper tigers, especially when they themselves place the highest priority on the development of a nuclear capability. Yet, since the first Chinese nuclear explosion on October 16, 1964, the official Communist Press has again referred to the United States, Great Britain and the revisionists (both Khrushchev and the present leaders of the Soviet Union) as paper tigers. This same metaphor has also been applied to imperialism and all reaction- aries, as well as to nuclear weapons, air-power and sea-power.' Mao Tse-tung first enunciated the concept that atomic bombs and all reactionaries are paper tigers, during an interview in August 1946.2 The theme has been repeated and expanded since, especially during periods of international tension and conflict. It is very closely related to and in many respects almost indistinguishable from an older Maoist revolutionary maxim which holds that men and politics, rather than weapons and economic power, are the determining factors in war.$ These two concepts have been called propaganda themes and rationalisations for technological inferiority. Actually they are both, but more than that they represent an ideological profession of faith by a rigime whose leaders are still first-generation revolutionaries. The Chinese Communist Party considers the paper tiger concept as one I For examples, see Peking Review, Vol. 17, No. 42, October 16, 1964 (Special Supple- ment), p. ii, and No. 48, November 27, 1964, pp. 8-9; Survey of China Mainland Press (SCMP) (Hong Kong: U.S. Consulate General), No. 3387, January 28, 1965, p. 29; No. 3388, January 29, 1965, p. 28, and No. 3412, March 9, 1965, pp. 35-36. 2 See Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1961), Vol. IV, p. 100 and note, pp. 98-99; Anna L. Strong, Dawn Out of China (Bombay: People's Publishing House, 1948), p. 155, and by the same author, Reminiscences on Interview with Chairman Mao Tse-tung, Peking Review, No. 48, November 29, 1960, pp. 13-17. Mao's statement that imperialism is a paper tiger is a more picturesque version of Lenin's view that imperialism is a colossus with feet of clay. See More on the Diflerences Between Comrade Togliatti and Us (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1963), pp. 144-145. s On Protracted War, Selected Military Writings of Mao Tse-tung (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1963), pp. 217-218; Imperialism and All Reactionaries are Paper Tigers (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1958), pp. 15-16. 55

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