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China demands halt to India's N-programme

China on Thursday came out with an official statement condemning India's second series of nuclear tests on Wednesday, and backed a global demand for an immediate halt to the ongoing nuclear programme.

Calling India's recent tests "nothing but an outrageous contempt for the common will of the international community for the comprehensive ban on nuclear tests, and a hard blow to international efforts to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation", China expressed its "deep shock and strong condemnation" for the two additional tests carried out by India at Pokaran on Wednesday.

The tests, said China in an official foreign ministry statement, "will entail serious consequences to the peace and stability in South Asia and the world at large. The international community should adopt a common position in strongly demanding India to immediately stop its nuclear development programme."

In a related development, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, in course of a telephonic conversation with US Secretary of State Madeline Albright, suggested that the international community should take a united stand in order to persuade New Delhi to halt testing and development of nuclear weapons.

This is the first indication of Chinese willingness to take action against India. At this point, however, there is no definite word about whether China will, or no, match sanctions already imposed by the United States.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministry statement touched on recent statements, both by India's Defence Minister George Fernandes and subsequently, by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, touching on the threat perception from China.

"The Indian government," read the Chinese foreign ministry statement, "which itself has undermined the international effort in banning nuclear tests so as to obtain hegemony in South Asia in defiance of world opinion, has even maliciously accused China as posing a nuclear threat to India. This is utterly groundless."

The official statement argues that ever since it possessed nuclear weapons, it has advocated the comprehensive prohibition and and complete destruction of nuclear weapons worldwide, and has unilaterally and unconditionally undertaken never to use, or threaten to use, nuclear weapons against non-nuclear nations, or in nuclear-free zones.

"This gratuitous accusation by India against China is solely for the purpose of finding excuses for the development of its own nuclear weapons," reads the statement. "The Chinese government will continue to closely watch the situation."

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