Sino-United States disputes over weapons proliferation

This thesis first aims to demonstrate how the nonproliferation norm is constructed mostly by Western representations of the security environment, focusing on the way in which the export of certain categories of weapons came to be delegitimized in Western circles. In so doing, it seeks to illustrate how U.S.-China relations were entangled with the weapons proliferation problem. Second, it examines the degree to which the international norms have affected U.S. debates and policy choices over China's proliferation practices both at the level of state interaction and at the domestic level. Ultimately it argues that the nonproliferation norm has had an only limited effect on the U.S. policy toward China in the presence of other important factors, most notably an interest in keeping a strong relationship with Beijing and seeking commercial interests in the Chinese market.