Posted on 9/7/2001, 5:53:26 PM by freedom_from_socialism
China on Friday accused the US of giving tacit consent to India's accelerated nuclear weapons programme in exchange for New Delhi's support for Washington's National Missile Defence (NMD) system, vehemently opposed by Beijing. "Currently, India is one of the few countries in support of the NMD programme of the United States, so the Americans naturally do not want to offend India, therefore they actually give tacit consent to India's practice of expanding its nuclear arsenal and developing a 'reliable and minimal nuclear deterrent force', " online edition of China's leading official newspaper, People's Daily said.
"It is the general view of analysts that India's current acceleration of its pace of using nuclear power to equip its armed forces is inseparable from the profound background of US change of its South Asian strategy."
It said since George W. Bush took office as US President, America in its bid to peddle NMD has further intensified its force in Asia and got increasingly nearer to India, which has become the sixth largest nuclear power in the world.
Interestingly, the report comes at a time when a senior-level Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) delegation is visiting India to enhance mutual understanding between the armed forces of the two nations.
The article said India's "overbearing behaviours" have aroused Pakistan's high vigilance.
Many people are worried that the situation of dialogue conducted between India and Pakistan has not come about easily and these moves of India would easily forfeit efforts made to improve relations between the two countries, it said.
Under such a circumstance, India's "excessive pursuit of one-sided nuclear superiority" will undoubtedly irritate other neighbours, including Pakistan, and will cause negative influence on the "image of peace" India has consistently tried to create, the daily said.
Quoting the latest estimation of western military experts, it said India now has 30-60 nuclear weapons and raw material for the production of over 70 nuclear bombs.
"By 2005, India will be able to further produce more than 100 nuclear bombs."
Since the nuclear tests it carried out in 1998, India has openly conducted many missile tests, the most noteworthy being the success in the two trial launches of 'Agni' II medium-range ballistic missiles, the report said noting that Agni-II with a firing range of 2,000-2,500 km could cover the whole territory of Pakistan and most regions of China including Shanghai and Guangzhou.
It also claimed that China's current strategic superiority over India would not last long.
With improvement and deployment of India's Agni-II missiles, China would also gradually lose its favourable natural defence condition - the towering Himalayas or the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, the article said.
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