China Says U.S. Nuclear "Secrets" On Internet

Henry C.K. Liu hliu at mindspring.com
Mon May 31 09:15:05 PDT 1999


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)



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