TL: THE CHINA SYNDROME: CHINA AND THE CTBT (Op-Ed) SO: John Bowler, Greenpeace International (GP) DT: June 7, 1996 China and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Negotiations During the mid-1950s radioactive fallout from atmospheric nuclear explosions, particularly from U.S. tests in the Pacific, provoked widespread concern about the health effects of nuclear tests. In 1954 India made the first proposal calling for an agreement to ban nuclear weapons tests. Since then, the United Nations* General Assembly and other international fora such as the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament (CD) have worked to achieve a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Forty-plus years on and the world is still waiting for a CTBT. There is now hope that a CTBT can be agreed and opened for signature this year, but China - due to its insistence that the treaty includes a special review of so-called peaceful nuclear explosions - is threatening this possibility. Founded twenty-five years ago in Canada to stop U.S. nuclear testing, Greenpeace is now giving priority to Chinese testing. The MV Greenpeace, which has just undergone repairs and maintenance following the campaign in the South Pacific against French nuclear testing, is now on its way to China to highlight testing within the country and to speak with officials of the Chinese Government. World-wide, Greenpeace campaigners are meeting with Chinese embassy officials. Work on a CTBT went into high gear in 1995 spurred on by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review and Extension Conference, continued Chinese nuclear testing, and the announcement by President Chirac that France was to resume its nuclear testing programme. By August 1995, due to the upsurge of public and political opposition to testing, France, the U.K. and the U.S.A. had committed themselves to a *zero yield* treaty which would ban all types of nuclear tests for any purpose for all time, irrespective of how small the explosion. By the end of 1995 the UN had adopted by consensus a resolution calling for the CTBT to be completed in time for it to be signed at the outset of the 51st session of the United Nations* General Assembly due to take place this coming September. However, for the treaty to be ready in time, the 37 countries negotiating the treaty in Geneva must formally adopt the treaty text by the end of this month. There is now less than three weeks for the CD to do so. The CTBT negotiations are now at a critical point. The Chairman of the CD has already released his draft treaty text, which includes a ban on all nuclear tests including peaceful nuclear explosions. China, the only *official* nuclear weapons state that has not committed to the zero yield ideal (Russia announced its support for a zero yield treaty at the G7 Summit meeting in Moscow, 19th/20th April 1996), announced on 6th June that it is unwilling to accept the scope of the Chairman*s draft unless the treaty specifically includes a review process for peaceful nuclear explosions. China, quite simply, is holding the world to ransom. China has conducted 43 nuclear tests since October 1964. The last as recently as 17th August 1995. On the 15th August, two days before that test, six Greenpeace activists were taken into custody in Tianamen Square, Beijing for displaying a banner against nuclear testing. All were deported. Although many observers expected further tests last year, China declined to carry out any more tests while world-wide condemnation of France's nuclear testing programme was at its height. It is, however, thought that China plans to carry out between two and four more nuclear tests before implementing any test ban. The first of these is expected in the immediate future. China*s attempts to hijack the CTBT negotiations by giving peaceful nuclear explosions special treatment is putting the treaty itself at risk. A true CTBT could not allow such explosions as they could be used to collect data for nuclear weapons development, would make any verification procedure inoperable, and would cause widespread environmental destruction. If the world is to have a treaty banning all nuclear testing signed this year, it is imperative that international pressure is brought to bear on China. Outrage and public and political action against President Chirac*s announcement of a resumption of nuclear testing ensured that France committed to a zero yield CTBT. Now the international community must turn its attention to China. Greenpeace has made the achievement of a CTBT in 1996 a priority. The time for the CTBT is now. It is needed as a critical first step toward nuclear disarmament.