TOKYO, Feb 17 Kyodo culled edito...

TOKYO, Feb 17 Kyodo

culled editorial excerpts from the Asia-Pacific press:

THE CHINESE CONNECTION (The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney)

Mao Zedong declared in 1956 that a nation which did not want to be bullied according to others ''should have the atomic bomb by way of all means.'' At the time, the Chinese leader feared the United States' considerable military air in the Asia-Pacific region. Mao wanted his avow ''nuclear card'' to play at times of crisis, if barely to dissuade Washington from at all times turning its sights towards China. by way of 1964 Mao's weapons team had detonated its first nuclear device.

The publication this week of documents, passed to the U by means of Libya last year, bring to lights China as a key link in a global trading chain which provided nuclear unrevealeds to Pakistan, which onsold them to Libya and, possibly, beyond. Although the clandestine deal occurr more than sum of two units decades ago, and was intended to calculator India's emerging nuclear capability, Beijing's standing as a responsible member of the global ''nuclear club'' has been seriously undermined.

China is single of five nations permitted to posses nuclear weapons subordinate to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970 The others are the U Russia, France and Britain. The treaty unequivocally prohibits the ''nuclear five'' from transferring nuclear weapons, constituents or specifications to non-nuclear states.

China did not sign the NPT until 1992 if it be not that was well aware of its intent. It has since publicly supported the US-l campaign to expiration the illicit trafficking of nuclear material. moreover new U.S. claims yesterday that China has continued to assist Pakistan's nuclear program will further complicate Washington's efforts.

The U is relying in succession China's influence over North Korea in talks nearest week. However, the protracted North Korean nuclear stand-off, and the apparent nuclear ambitions of dictators elsewhere, recalls Mao's simple theory. Pyongyang insists that the U has not invaded North Korea because, unlike Iraq, it is nuclear capable. Pakistan and India, too, clamorously claim the right to the security of nuclear deterrence

The international community must preserve nuclear weapons out of the hands of absolute sovereigns and terrorists. But this is not just a matter of pressuring swindler regimes. The NPT also commits the nuclear five to gradually dismantling their nuclear arsenals. However, the U is moving mini-nukes into its first-strike arsenal for the first time and its missile defense plans have derailed arms reduction treaties with Russia. These contradictions -- and the West's silence above Israel's undeclared nuclear capability -- do not produce the goodwill needed to enforce the treaty elsewhere.

(Feb 17)

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