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China's neutron boast is ill-timed

It follows declaration of Taiwan `statehood'

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LIZ SLY CHICAGO TRIBUNE

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BEIJING

China fueled the controversy over Taiwan's surprise declaration of virtual statehood by announcing on Thursday that Chinese scientists had developed a neutron bomb 11 years ago.

The claim carried more psychological than strategic significance and was aimed at Washington more than Taipei.

It served as a timely reminder that China is a nuclear power as it faces down Taiwan over the island's recent assertion that it was abandoning its ``one-China'' policy and would view relations with China as ``state to state.''

The Clinton administration on Thursday warned China it would not tolerate a violent solution to the future of Taiwan.

``We would determine and consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means as a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States,'' said State Department spokesman James Rubin.

China's boast of having built a neutron bomb was the first official confirmation that China has the technology to produce the weapon, though the claim did not come as a surprise.

China was suspected to have tested a neutron bomb in 1988 and a miniature nuclear warhead in 1996, before it suspended nuclear testing under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

The announcement noted that the bomb was developed without any stolen U.S. technology, part of an effort by Beijing to disprove allegations of espionage contained in the Cox report, a congressional study that contained allegations of extensive Chinese theft of U.S. nuclear secrets.

China developed its neutron-bomb technology in its own laboratories, insisted Zhao Qizheng, chief spokesman for the State Council. ``Could Chinese possibly be as intelligent as Americans? The inference of the Cox report is that they couldn't possibly be,'' he said.

The neutron bomb is often misleadingly described as a bomb that destroys people, not real estate, and was developed by the United States in the 1970s to be used against large-scale Soviet tank formations.

It has a larger radiation reach, and therefore would kill more people than traditional nuclear bombs. But a single neutron bomb also has a considerable explosive force and would cause massive devastation if detonated near a large urban area.

In the absence of the threat of a large-scale land war, neutron bombs are no more useful than any other kind of nuclear weapon, such as the traditional bombs China is already known to possess. Neutron bombs would therefore serve no useful purpose in a war with Taiwan, said John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists.

``The real issue now isn't whether they've got a neutron bomb, it's why on Earth they would want to have one,'' he said.

Taiwan's announcement came at a low point in U.S.-China relations, and may have been intended in part to capitalize on the freeze that took hold after the bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade.

But in recent days there have been signs of a thaw. A U.S. envoy was in Beijing on Wednesday to discuss details of U.S. compensation for the victims of the embassy bombing with Chinese officials.

The United States has also affirmed its support for the ``one-China'' principle that has defined China's relationship with Taiwan for the last 50 years.

Taiwan on Thursday issued what it now considers the official wording of its relations with mainland China: It is ``one nation, two states.''

The new definition followed the uproar caused by President Lee Teng-hui's remarks indicating that China should deal with Taiwan on a ``state-to-state'' basis.

© 1999 PioneerPlanet / St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press - All Rights Reserved