Last updated: Mon, May 31 at Prague 06:08 pm, N.Y. 12:08 pm
China Says U.S. Nuclear "Secrets" On Internet
BEIJING, May 31, 1999 -- (Reuters)
China sneered on Monday at allegations it
stole U.S. nuclear weapons secrets, saying
warhead technology is readily available in
libraries and on the Internet.
"Performance data on the seven types of
nuclear warheads...have long been openly
published in the United States," cabinet
spokesman Zhao Qizheng told reporters.
"They are no longer secrets, so there is
nothing to steal," Zhao said in a statement
he read to reporters before logging on to
the Internet to demonstrate the availablity
of nuclear technology.
At a website registered to the Federation of
American Scientists (http://www.fas.org),
he showed graphics and data on the
dimensions and yields of nuclear bombs
included in the Cox report.
A report by a special congressional
committee headed by Republican
Christopher Cox said China stole secret
information on U.S. nuclear technology,
including seven types of warheads, in a
spying campaign spanning 20 years.
"This is utterly absurd. This sensational
conclusion does not hold water," Zhao
said.
He insisted China has never stolen foreign
technology to build its national defence and
said U.S. assumptions that it could not
have developed advanced nuclear weapons
on its own were "wildly arrogant".
"Never did China in the past, nor does it at
present, nor will it in the future base its
development of sophisticated national
defence technology related to national
security and interests on the theft of
technology from other countries."
Zhao branded as racist the Cox Report's
charge that China used not only
professional intelligence agents but also
scientists, students, businessmen and
bureaucrats to obtain secrets.
"This is a great slander against the Chinese
nation and is typical racial prejudice," he
said.
China launched its first indigenous
surface-to-surface missile and first atom
bomb in 1964, 12 years before the
establishment of diplomatic relations with
the United States when Washington was
running an economic blockade of China,
he said.
Zhao's denials were the most detailed
attempt to date by Beijing to rebut the
allegations of last week's 872-page Cox
Report.
The report has compounded fractures in
Sino-U.S. ties caused by NATO's bombing
of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on
May 7.
Zhao said the report's release was timed by "anti-China forces" in Washington to sabotage relations and deflect attention from the embassy bombing.
"It seems totally intentional that the Cox Report was published under current circumstances," he said.
"Their purpose is to divert public attention, fan anti-China feelings, defame China's image and try to hold back Sino-U.S relations so as to stop China's development," he said.
Chinese media have insisted the bombing was deliberate, while NATO said it was a mistake based on outdated maps. ((c) 1999 Reuters)