China, seeing such a system as a threat to its small nuclear deterrent, could respond by enlarging it.
Nowhere is the opposition stronger than in China, which believes that its small nuclear deterrent force may be neutralized by the American system.
That leads to nuclear-arms-control negotiations, where you could see, potentially, the North Koreans willing to give up the production facilities but retain that small nuclear deterrent, that small arsenal of nuclear I.C.B.M.s".
But several leading Chinese reacted strongly, saying the system was also aimed at China, where officials fear that their relatively small nuclear deterrent could be greatly diminished by even a modest missile defense program.
But China's concerns about its own small nuclear deterrent offer America and China the opportunity to open a stabilising new dialogue.Mr Bush is determined to explore defences.
The two are linked closely in China's mind, since it worries that America's plans for national defences could undermine China's small nuclear deterrent, while less capable regional ones developed to help defend, say, American troops in Japan, could also someday be used to protect Taiwan from China.
The current deal allows an authoritarian regime like China unlimited access to nuclear technology and weapons, while placing all kinds of restrictions on a peaceful democracy of a billion people for choosing to address their legitimate security needs by maintaining a small nuclear deterrent.
China is hopping mad at the thought that future theatre missile defences in Asia, along with national missile defences for America, could undermine its smaller nuclear deterrent.
It also blunts the more determined opposition from China, which, unlike Russia, fears for the usefulness of its smaller nuclear deterrent force and worries that regional anti-missile defences could someday be used to protect Taiwan.
It is clearly in the interests of both nations that China maintain the smallest effective nuclear deterrent possible.
