From: Stewart Johnson, Australia Tibet Council

Source: World Tibet Network News, wtn-l@vm1.mcgill.ca, Saturday, Jul 22, 1995

The French decision to resume nuclear testing in the South Pacific has generated a storm of community, media and political outcry in Australia. The Australia Tibet Council is encouraging its members to write letters to the editor of major newspapers, raising the issue of ongoing Chinese nuclear testing in Central Asia. While France is proposing to test nuclear weapons, China is the only country in the world (that we know of) that has an active nuclear testing program already underway.

If the French decision is generating media interest in your country, the following "information sheet" which we have distributed to our members in Australia may be of use to you for writing letters to your newspapers.

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FRANCE JOINS CHINA AS NUCLEAR OUTCAST

* There has been international condemnation of France's decision to resume nuclear testing in its South Pacific "territories", yet the world community has ignored the fact that China is the only country currently testing nuclear weapons.

* China was the only nation to ignore the (informal) international moratorium on nuclear testing which commenced in 1992.

* China has exploded at least six nuclear bombs at its test site in East Turkestan, near the Tibetan border, since the commencement of the moratorium in 1992.

* The most recent test was on 15 May this year, a mere four days after China had itself signed the extension to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty.

* China has announced that it will explode four more nuclear weapons at its test site in Central Asia before the end of 1996.

* France located its test site not in France, but in a distant colonial territory thousands of kilometres from Paris. Similarly, China has located its nuclear testing facilities not near Beijing, but in the far reaches of its colonial empire in regions inhabited by non-Chinese peoples - in occupied Tibet, Mongolia and East Turkestan.

* Like Muraroa, China's nuclear weapons research sites on the Tibetan plateau remain environmental catastrophes.

* It is hypocritical of us to condemn France but continue to ignore China, which has been exploding nuclear bombs on occupied soil throughout the international testing moratorium.

* All nuclear testing is unacceptable - whether it be French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, or Chinese nuclear testing in Central Asia.