Mitcalfe has a long history of anticommunism which goes well back before the bomb test became trendy. When he was running the local Committee on Vietnam he used to send telegrams to Ho Chi Minh telling him to give up fighting. And it was under his "leadership" that members of the Communist Party were proscribed from joining the Committee on Vietnam. Barry's not too bad at spotting symptoms of an evil but he's never been strong on discerning the political reality behind it.

Kirk's strongly worded protest is an open violation of the principle of non-interference in one another's affairs enunciated when New Zealand recognised China. Since December 21 1972, when New Zealand recognised China on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful co-existence, Kirk has shown no interest in or sympathy for the Chinese people, other than a cringing attempt to establish trade links.

The Chinese Position

The Chinese position on nuclear testing has been clear for many years, though there have been systematic attempts to distort it. As an issue of foreign policy, the issue of nuclear arms falls within the ambit of the Five Principles and also within the clear statement that "At no time, neither today nor ever in the future, will China be a superpower subjecting others to aggression, subversion, control, interference or bullying". (Peking Review. April 20, 1973) On the question of the use of arms Chinese representatives have repeatedly made it clear the China believes that it is not arms that lead to war "The crucial question is who wields the arms and what kind of policy they serve (Peking Review, Nov 3, 1972.)

A mere opposition to arms in themselves is pointless, as it overlooks the different uses to which arms may be put, at the simplest level it equates attack with defence. Such a position is one which plays directly into the hands of those already holding the dominant power in the world. China has always been in favour of disarmament, but has opposed the use of this just aspiration on the part of people striving for peace, by those who wish to cover their own world hegemony.

Treaty Hoaxes

At the present time, this specifically means the nuclear super-powers the USSR and the USA. The continual "partial nuclear test-ban treaty" and the "treaty of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons have never been anything more than a hoax". "In our opinion", said Chen Chu at the United Nations last year, "if there is to be disarmament it should be genuine disarmament, and it must not be used as a slogan to deceive the people. If a world disarmament conference is called, it must contribute to the promotion of the struggle of the peace-loving people of the world for the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons and must not serve to lull and hoodwink them."

Quite clearly the present world situation, where the dual superpower imperialisms attempt to divide the world into "peaceful" spheres of influence, any talk of nuclear disarmament or indeed any disarmament is quite pointless. It does however suit the two super powers, for two reasons. First, they both already have enough nuclear bombs to destroy life on our planet. Second, nuclear warfare is to a certain extent by-passed for them by either conventional warfare or the vastly increased biological warfare they have developed. As Chen Chu put it, "the actual situation is that the overwhelming majority of countries in the world are being subjected to the threat by nuclear superpowers in varying degrees. To convene the world disarmament conference under such conditions is in effect demanding that these countries accept 'terms of surrender' under the nuclear threat."

In these circumstances the Chinese see themselves as developing nuclear weapons "solely for the purpose of defence and for breaking the nuclear monopoly and ultimately eliminating nuclear weapons and nuclear war". (Peking Review, June 16, 1972)

Environmental Effects

On the question of the environmental effects of nuclear testing, which appear to worry the present anti-Chinese lobby far more than the quite concrete destruction being daily carried by conventional means, China has already run across New Zealand's timorous aspirations as a watchdog. At the United Nations Conference on the Environment China voted against a New Zealand resolution condemning nuclear tests. How heartless, how irresponsible! But where was New Zealand when China immediately before submitted a resolution calling for destruction of all nuclear and biochemical weapons, to be first implemented by an agreement by all powers never to use the weapons they had. Of course, the Chinese motion was never passed.

China has continually reiterated that it desires neither testing grounds nor any nuclear or military bases outside her own borders — a position most recently outlined by Foreign Minister Chi Peng-fei in November 1972 when signing the Pact for a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone in Latin America.

All of these positive initiatives and positions are ignored by those who, in opposing the French Tests, see themselves in a new world-reformist role.