A Dumping Ground for Nuclear Waste<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Vienna Declaration of the World Conference on Human\u00a0Rights, 1993, articulated that, \u201cIllicit dumping of toxic and\u00a0dangerous substances potentially constitutes a serious threat\u00a0to human rights, life and the health of everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Basel Convention, signed in 1992 by various countries\u00a0and to which China is a signatory, and the subsequent Basel\u00a0Ban, adopted as an amendment to the convention in\u00a0September 1995, prohibit trade in hazardous wastes from\u00a0industrialised to non-industrialised countries. At the fourth\u00a0Conference of Parties (COP-IV) held in Kuching, Malaysia,\u00a0between 23-27 February 1998, China supported no changes\u00a0to the Basel Ban to stop certain developing countries from\u00a0benefiting from trade in recyclable hazardous waste.\u00a0Although this is a step in the right direction, China\u2019s own\u00a0record of waste disposal on the Tibetan Plateau is dismal,\u00a0to say the least.<\/p>\n
On 18 February 1984, The Washington Post reported that\u00a0China had tentatively agreed to store up to 4,000 tons of\u00a0radioactive waste from European nuclear reactors in the\u00a0remote Gobi Desert in exchange for US$ 6 billion. Since\u00a0then this was to take place over the next 16 years.\u00a0In the fall of 1988, news began circulating among Tibetans\u00a0that Tibet was to be used as a nuclear dumping ground for\u00a0Western Europe. According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama,\u00a0a signed document offered evidence that the Chinese\u00a0government was planning to dump foreign nuclear waste in\u00a0Tibet (Weisskopf 1984).<\/p>\n
In 1991, Greenpeace reported that the city officials in\u00a0Baltimore, Maryland, USA, had secured a tentative\u00a0agreement with China to ship 20,000 tons of the city\u2019s toxic\u00a0sewage waste to Tibet in exchange for payment of US$1.44\u00a0million. The brokers for the shipment were California\u00a0Enterprises, and Hainan Sunlit Group, a Chinese government\u00a0agency. The latter stated that such shipments did not require\u00a0government approval according to China\u2019s import rules, and\u00a0guaranteed that the sludge would not be shipped back to the\u00a0USA. Greenpeace noted that the import document described\u00a0the shipment as \u201cheni\u201d, which means \u201criver silt\u201d in Chinese.\u00a0Greenpeace protested that \u201curban sewage is not river silt\u201d.\u00a0In the United States, sludge from urban sewage treatment\u00a0plants are chronically laced with toxic pollutants. In\u00a0Milwaukee, USA, such use was linked to outbreaks of\u00a0amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Due to international pressure\u00a0the above shipment of waste to Tibet did not take place.<\/p>\n
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, while participating in a meetthe –\u00a0press programme, organised by the Karnataka Union\u00a0of Working Journalists in Bangalore in India, said he had\u00a0authentic information that China had set up a nuclear\u00a0weapons factory in Tibet. He said that China had stationed\u00a0a half-a-million-strong military force in Tibet, which indicated\u00a0that the situation in the occupied territory was potentially\u00a0explosive (The Statesman 21 January 1992).<\/p>\n
China\u2019s Nationalities Affairs Commission issued a\u00a0document through Xinhua on 18 April 1991 stating that\u00a0allegations of nuclear pollution from the deployment of\u00a0nuclear weapons and nuclear waste in Tibet were \u201ctotally\u00a0groundless\u201d. However, the same news agency had admitted\u00a0that nuclear wastes were dumped in Tibet. On 19 July 1995\u00a0it reported that there was a \u201c20 square metre dump for\u00a0radioactive pollutants\u201d in Tsojang (Haibei) Tibetan\u00a0Autonomous Prefecture near the shores of Lake Kokonor.\u00a0The report claimed that the military nuclear weapons facility\u00a0(Ninth Academy), that produced the waste, had maintained\u00a0an \u201cexcellent\u201d safety record during its 30 years of operation,\u00a0and that there had not been \u201cany harm to the environment\u201d\u00a0and \u201cno one at the base ever died of radiation\u201d.<\/p>\n
The report did not give details as to how the nuclear\u00a0waste was initially contained or how it is being managed. It\u00a0did however quote You Deliang, spokesman for the China\u00a0National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), as saying that China\u00a0spent a large amount of money from 1989 to 1993 to\u00a0\u201cstrictly supervise the environmental conditions of the retired\u00a0nuclear weapons base\u201d.<\/p>\n
Chinese government propaganda even went to the extent\u00a0of saying: \u201cHaibei Prefecture moved its capital from\u00a0Menynan county to the site of the retired nuclear plant,\u00a0only one month after the area passed a state examination in\u00a0June, 1993. Atom Bomb City (Ninth Academy) has since\u00a0been serving the economic prosperity of the people\u201d (Xinhua\u00a019 July 1995)\u00a0A 1993 report, Nuclear Tibet, published by the\u00a0International Campaign for Tibet, documented reports by a\u00a0Tibetan doctor, Tashi Dolma, of abnormally high rates of\u00a0diseases in the nearby towns of Reshui and Ganzihe. She\u00a0also treated children of nomads who grazed their animals\u0f0badjacent to the \u201cNinth Academy\u201d or \u201cFactory 211,\u201d nuclear\u0f0bbase, seven of whom died of cancer within five years.<\/p>\n
Shallow land burial techniques for nuclear waste,\u0f0bconsidered obsolete in the West, were deemed \u201csufficiently\u0f0bsafe\u201d for implementation in China. On the proposed site\u0f0bfor High Level Waste (HLW), Chinese officials said that\u0f0bChina had a very wide distribution area and it would be easy\u0f0bto find a site (UNI 1988). Since Tibet is sparsely populated\u00a0by \u201cminority nationalities\u201d and is far removed from Beijing,\u0f0bthe Chinese consider it as a perfect site to dump poisonous\u0f0bnuclear wastes.<\/p>\n
According to a Reuter report dated 10 November 1993,\u00a0China was building its first radioactive waste disposal centre\u00a0in the arid western province of Gansu. Further, it had\u00a0planned three more in southern, southwestern and eastern\u00a0China under its ambitious schemes to boost nuclear power\u00a0to make up for a projected annual shortage of some 150\u00a0million tons of coal by 2000 and 1.2 billion tons by 2050.\u00a0The Gansu disposal centre would have an initial disposal\u00a0capacity of 60,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste, which\u00a0would expand to 200,000 cubic metres. CNNC spokesman,\u00a0You Deliang, said costs are estimated to be at least 100\u00a0million yuan (US$ 12.5 million).<\/p>\n
Taiwan\u2019s nuclear experts went to Beijing to attend a\u00a0symposium billed as an \u201cice-breaker for atom splitters\u201d.\u00a0China offered a dumpsite for Taiwan\u2019s stockpile of radioactive waste (Far Eastern Economic Review 25 March 1993)\u00a0but, according to AFP on 28 May 1997, Taiwan snubbed\u00a0the offer by China to take their 60,000 barrels of nuclear\u00a0waste.<\/p>\n
LOCAL IMPACTS<\/strong><\/p>\nDumping of nuclear wastes on the Tibetan Plateau will\u00a0directly affect the lives of people and the health of the\u00a0environment in both the short-term and over millions of\u00a0years. For example, the half life (time it takes to lose half of\u00a0its radioactivity) of uranium (U238) is 4,500 million years.\u00a0Therefore, harmful radiation emitted is a health hazard for\u00a0millions of years to come and can lead to a number of\u00a0deadly diseases including cancer and leukaemia. Radioactivity\u00a0also affects the DNA of living cells causing genetic disorders\u00a0and deformities that can be passed from generation to\u00a0generation in humans, animals and plants.<\/p>\n
The fission of U235 produces many other radioactive\u00a0isotopes, such as strontium 90, cesium 137 and barium 140.\u00a0These wastes remain radioactive and dangerous for about\u00a0600 years because of the strontium and cesium isotopes.<\/p>\n
Plutonium and others remain radioactive for a million years.\u00a0Even in small amounts, plutonium can cause cancer or\u00a0genetic (reproduction) damage in human beings. Larger\u00a0amounts can cause radiation sickness and death. Plutonium\u00a0is so carcinogenic that one pound (0.5 kg) of it evenly\u00a0distributed could cause cancer in every person on earth\u00a0(Caldicott 1997). Safe disposal of these radioactive wastes\u00a0is one of the problems that remains unsolved by world\u00a0scientists, even today.<\/p>\n
People, Animals and Plants Contaminated<\/strong>
\nGonpo Thondup, who escaped from Tibet to Dharamsala\u00a0in India in March 1987, visited two nuclear weapons\u00a0production departments code-numbered 405 in Kyangtsa\u00a0and 792 in Thewo, Amdo region. His statement was\u00a0presented by Tsewang Norbu at the World Uranium Hearing![\"Untitled-1](\"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Untitled-1-copy3.jpg\")
\u00a0in Salzburg, Germany, on 14 September 1992. It reads: \u201cThe\u00a0effects of experiments and waste from 792 and 405 have\u00a0been devastating. Before 1960, in this region of Amdo\u00a0harvests were plentiful and domestic animals healthy. Now\u00a0the crop yield has shrunk and people and animals are dying\u00a0mysteriously, and in increasing numbers. Since 1987 there\u00a0has been a sharp rise in the number of deaths of domestic\u00a0animals and fish have all but vanished. In the years of 1989\u00a0and 1990, 50 people died in the region, all from mysterious\u00a0causes. Twelve women gave birth in the summer of 1990,\u00a0and every child was dead before or died during birth. One\u00a0Tibetan woman, Tsering Dolma (aged 30), has given birth\u00a0seven times and not a single child has survived.\u201d<\/p>\nGonpo Thondup added that, \u201cThe people living near\u00a0departments 405 and 792 have experienced strange diseases\u00a0they have never seen before. Many local people\u2019s skin turned\u00a0yellowish and their eyesight has been affected seriously. Local\u00a0populace reported strange memory losses and many babies\u00a0are born deformed. The people of the area are desperate,\u00a0and can only turn to religion and local doctors, who have no\u00a0knowledge of the uranium mines or of the nuclear plants\u00a0nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is consistent evidence that China\u2019s nuclear\u00a0programme has caused the regular loss of human lives.\u00a0According to Tibet Information Network (TIN) in a News\u00a0Update of 11 September 1992, at least 35 Tibetans living\u00a0near uranium mines died within a few hours after developing\u00a0a high fever and distinctive diarrhoea in Ngaba region in\u00a0Sichuan Province.<\/p>\n
In 1984 villagers from Reshui and Ganzihe villages,\u00a0located close to the Ninth Academy in Amdo, reported\u00a0strange diseases to the Tibetan doctor, Tashi Dolma\u00a0 and\u00a0her medical team. However, the Chinese authorities would\u00a0not allow the medical team to follow up these reports. Dr.\u00a0Tashi worked at Chabcha hospital in Tsolho (Hainan) Tibetan\u00a0Autonomous Prefecture, directly south of the nuclear city\u00a0(Ninth Academy), where she treated the children of nomads\u00a0whose cattle grazed near the Academy. These children\u00a0developed cancer which caused their white blood cell count\u00a0to rise uncontrollably. An American doctor conducting\u00a0research at the hospital reported that these symptoms were\u00a0similar to cancers caused by radiation after the Hiroshima\u00a0and Nagasaki atom bombings in 1945. In addition, there\u00a0have been numerous reports of unexplained deaths and\u00a0illnesses amongst this nomad population in recent years.<\/p>\n
In September 1992, the International Campaign for Tibet\u00a0fact-finding team found that meat from the area had been\u00a0banned from stores by the Chinese authorities. However,\u00a0poor Tibetans often ate the contaminated meat, either out\u00a0of ignorance or economic constraint.<\/p>\n
URANIUM MINING<\/strong>
\nUranium mines are located in several regions of Tibet,\u00a0including Damshung, north of Lhasa; Tsaidam Basin north\u00a0of Gormo (Ch. Golmud); Yamdrok Tso, and Thewo (3338N,\u00a010245E) in southern Amdo, 254 km from Tsoe under\u00a0Kanlho (Ch. Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in\u00a0Gansu Province. The uranium deposits at Thewo in Kanlho\u00a0Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture are known to be the largest\u00a0in Tibet. The processing of uranium takes place four km\u00a0southwest of Thewo. Apart from mining uranium in Tibet,\u00a0the Chinese also extract strontium which is used for nuclear\u00a0missile cladding (Chutter 1998).<\/p>\nAt the uranium mine at Thewo, poisonous waste water is\u00a0allegedly collected and stored in a stone structure 40 meters\u00a0high before being released into the local river, which the\u00a0people use for drinking. Tibetan refugees escaping to India\u00a0report the following results from the mining:<\/p>\n
\u2022 More than 50 Tibetan residents of Thewo died between\u00a01987-91 from mysterious illnesses
\n\u2022 Domestic animals die mysteriously and the cause of\u00a0illness is unidentifiable
\n\u2022 Trees and grasses wither
\n\u2022 The Jampakok River is polluted; the water is black and\u00a0smells putrid. This river merges with Dukchu Karpo\u00a0(Ch. Palungjang River).<\/p>\n
A list of 24 Thewo residents who mysteriously died was\u00a0part of the information provided to the Tibetan\u00a0Government-in-Exile\u2019s Environment Desk. Witnesses said\u00a0that before they died, all the victims experienced a high fever,\u00a0then shivering cold; after death, their skins had a bluish hue.\u00a0Animals also turned blue or black after death and their organs\u00a0appeared burnt.<\/p>\n
Vanya Kewley, a BBC reporter who visited the Chinese missile base at Nagchuka in 1988, interviewed several people living in the area. In her book Tibet: Behind the Ice Curtain a man called Kelsang said: \u201cMany people have seen and heard movements and noises. Most people here have seen missiles coming from China and many travellers have seen movements of missiles at different places.\u201d He further said: \u201cAs a result of the situation here, animals\u00a0are getting strange diseases and dying. Some people are dying\u00a0and children are being born deformed. In many places, water\u00a0is contaminated and undrinkable. The moment you drink it,\u00a0you get ill or get diseases that we never had before. People\u00a0get ill and go to different hospitals. They don\u2019t get better\u00a0and the doctors don\u2019t tell us what it is and then we have to\u00a0keep quiet about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prison Labour at Nuclear Missile Sites<\/strong>
\nDuring the 1960s and 1970s, prisoners including political\u00a0prisoners were used to build China\u2019s nuclear infrastructures.\u00a0In Amdo huge prison labour camps (laogai) are consistently\u00a0placed next to nuclear missile sites. Next to the Terlingkha\u00a0silos is the \u201cDelingha Farm\u201d, which is one of the three largest\u00a0labour camps in China today with a prison population\u00a0estimated at 100,000.\u00a0The two nuclear missile sites in central Amdo, Large\u00a0Tsaidam and Small Tsaidam, also have sizeable\u00a0labour camps alongside them. Prominent\u00a0human rights activist and former Chinese\u00a0political prisoner, Harry Wu, reports that\u00a0labour reform camps in Amdo use prisoners\u00a0to excavate radioactive ore. In addition, prisoners are forced to enter nuclear test sites in order to perform dangerous work. Common and political prisoners are also used in nuclear facilities in Lanzhou, Gansu Province (ICT 1993). The International Campaign for Tibet confirmed in 1993 that prison labour was used in the building of nuclear installations at Lop Nor, the Ninth Academy and Lanzhou.<\/p>\nTRANS-NATIONAL IMPACTS<\/strong><\/p>\nMost toxic disposal sites on the Tibetan Plateau have minimal,\u00a0if any, safety standards. The effects of harmful radioactive\u00a0pollutants dumped anywhere on the plateau will be felt far\u00a0beyond its borders, particularly because it is the source of\u00a0Asia\u2019s ten major river systems and numerous tributaries. It\u00a0thus commands massive interdependent ecological zones\u00a0which share weather and climatic anomalies.<\/p>\n
Atmospheric Pollution<\/strong>
\nThe nuclear waste pollution of the Tibetan Plateau, besides\u00a0having local effects, also has trans-national implications. The\u00a0high altitude winds (jet streams) that blow over the Tibetan\u00a0Plateau may carry nuclear pollutants from Tibet across the\u00a0globe to affect other countries; no boundary can be built to\u00a0control air pollution. The Tibetan Plateau is seismologically\u00a0an active region. Consequently, serious accidents at nuclear\u00a0power and weapons production plants can endanger the lives\u00a0of people and the health of the environment. When the\u00a0disaster occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in\u00a0the former Soviet Union in 1986, radioactive dust from the\u00a0plant travelled 950 miles (1,529 km) in all directions, resulting\u00a0in irreparable damage to people, property and the\u00a0environment (Chitkara 1996).<\/p>\nGround Water and Soil Contamination<\/strong>
\nPan Ziqiang, Director of the Safety Department of the\u00a0state-run National Nuclear Industry Corporation, is quoted\u00a0as saying that so far all of China\u2019s nuclear wastes have been\u00a0put in concrete basement facilities which are safe for only\u00a0about 10 years.<\/p>\nLuo Guozhen of the State Environmental Protection\u00a0Bureau says that 1,200 people were injured by radioactivity\u00a0between 1980 and 1985 and about 20 died. He said managers\u00a0who ignored regulations on handling radioactive waste were\u00a0partly to blame for radioactive leaks (Sunday Morning Post\u00a01989).<\/p>\n
Due to weathering, radioactive and other military wastes\u00a0buried in the ground in concrete containers will seep out\u00a0and contaminate ground water sources that are normally\u00a0used for drinking and agricultural purposes. Ground water\u00a0makes up a significant share of China\u2019s water resources.<\/p>\n
Reports from Tibet confirm that underground water\u00a0supplies in Amdo have been diminishing at a rapid rate.\u00a0One of the main sources of drinking water, underground\u00a0aquifers, are impossible to clean once contaminated. Therefore, any pollution at all, especially radioactive\u00a0contamination of ground water, is of great concern (Chitkara\u00a01996).<\/p>\n
River Pollution and Flooding<\/strong>
\nRadioactive waste randomly disposed of near water bodies\u00a0will pollute rivers, lakes, and springs. Since Tibet is the\u00a0fountainhead of water for most of South and Southeast\u00a0Asia, the impact of headwater pollution \u2014 especially by\u00a0nuclear or industrial toxic waste \u2014 on the social and\u00a0economic fabric of millions of people living downstream\u00a0would be disastrous. Countries including China, Pakistan,\u00a0India, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos,\u00a0Bhutan, Nepal, and Vietnam will be drastically affected and\u00a0forced to alter their livelihood. This will certainly cause terrible suffering to everyone dependent on these rivers for their\u00a0subsistence.<\/p>\n![\"Untitled-1](\"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Untitled-1-copy4.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBetween 1985 and 1994 36,000 hectares of Chinese\u00a0farmland suffered annually from topsoil loss, especially along\u00a0the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, both of which originate from\u00a0Tibet. Erosion has caused river beds to rise several meters\u00a0higher than the surrounding farmland, thereby increasing\u00a0the incidence of flooding. Since 1990, China\u2019s major rivers\u00a0have flooded large tracts of land almost every year (UNDP\u00a01997). More than 1,600 people drowned due to flooding of\u00a0the Yangtze River in July 1996. The flooded river waters\u00a0have affected one in 10 Chinese (FEER 1996).<\/p>\n
In an extensive survey of China\u2019s major river basins,\u00a0carried out in 1994, only 32 percent of the river water was\u00a0found to meet the national standards for drinking water\u00a0sources. Large segments of the Chinese population have to\u00a0rely on polluted sources for drinking water, though estimates\u00a0differ considerably (UNDP 1997).\u00a0At the \u201cEndangered Tibet\u201d Conference in Sydney on 28\u00a0September 1996, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, \u201cFive\u00a0years ago, a local Tibetan from the Dingri region of southern\u00a0Tibet told me about a river that all the villagers used for\u00a0drinking. There were also Chinese living in the area. The\u00a0Chinese residents belonging to the People\u2019s Liberation Army\u00a0were informed not to drink the water from the river as it\u00a0was polluted by a factory upstream, but local Tibetans were\u00a0not informed. The Tibetans still drink the polluted water.\u00a0This shows some sort of negligence going on. This\u00a0obviously is not because of lack of awareness, but due\u00a0to other reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n
INTERNATIONAL TENSION<\/strong>
\nBeijing has unresolved territorial disputes over land or sea\u00a0borders with countries ranging geographically from India\u00a0and North Korea to Indonesia, not to mention its outright\u00a0claim to Taiwan. Beijing\u2019s official 1996-97 defence budget\u00a0was US$ 30.27 billion and over the last 10 years China\u2019s\u00a0defence budget shows a net increase of 12 to 20 percent\u00a0(Kanwal 1999). China has 9,200 tanks, 51 submarines, 55\u00a0destroyers and frigates, 870 patrol and coastal crafts, and\u00a05,845 combat aircraft (FEER 13 April 1995).<\/p>\nThe Nuclear Weapons Data of 1994 brought out by the\u00a0US Natural Resources Defence Council had estimated\u00a0China\u2019s nuclear arsenal at 450 warheads, of which about\u00a0300 were physically deployed. An autumn 1995 study in the\u00a0US Strategic Review had estimated the delivery capability of\u00a0China\u2019s strategic triad as consisting of: four Inter-Continental\u00a0Ballistic Missiles (DF-5A also known as CSS-4) capable of\u00a0hitting targets in the US, Russia, and Europe; Intermediate-\u00a0Range Ballistic Missiles (an unknown quantity of DF-4, also\u00a0known as CSS-3 and about 50 DF-3A also known as CSS-\u00a02) capable of hitting Russia and India; about 25 to 50 mobile\u00a0missiles (DF-21 also known as CSS-6) with a range of 1,800\u00a0km; an unknown quantity of tactical missiles (DF-15 also\u00a0known as M-9) with a range of 600 km; Submarine-Launched\u00a0Ballistic Missiles (JL-1 also known as CSS-N-3) with a range\u00a0of 1,700 km, and a limited number of aircraft capable of\u00a0nuclear delivery such as the H-5 and H-6 bombers and the\u00a0Q-5 attack aircraft.<\/p>\n
In addition, according to the Strategic Review, China was\u00a0further developing DF-31 with a range of 8,000 km, DF-\u00a041 with a range of 12,000 km and JL-2, and a submarine-launchable\u00a0version of DF-31. China\u2019s new small nuclear\u00a0missiles will very likely equip DF-31 and DF-41 ( Fischer\u00a01999). It was also developing H-7, a twin-jet, twin-seat allweather\u00a0strike and interdiction aircraft capable of nuclear\u00a0delivery (The Hindu 12 October 1998).<\/p>\n
China has 120 TU-16 bombers that have a 3,100 km\u00a0range and has deployed the S-3000 surface to air missile\u00a0(The Tribune 11 June 1998). China is indeed a nuclear power\u00a0to be reckoned with.\u00a0China admitted that it has powerful nuclear arms. \u201cWe\u00a0have developed a limited number of strategic nuclear arms\u00a0for the sake of breaking the nuclear monopoly, opposing\u00a0blackmail, containing a possible nuclear attack and creating\u00a0a peaceful environment for China\u2019s construction,\u201d Yang\u00a0Guoliang, commander of the Second Artillery Force (SAF)\u00a0of the People\u2019s Liberation Army was quoted as saying by\u00a0the official Chinese media (The Times of India 1997).<\/p>\n
A new Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report says that\u00a013 of China\u2019s 18 long-range strategic missiles have single\u00a0nuclear warheads aimed at cities in the United States. Quoting\u00a0an intelligence document sent to top policy-makers in\u00a0advance of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright\u2019s visit to\u00a0Beijing on 30 April 1998, The Washington Times said the 13\u00a0CSS-4 missiles aimed at the US \u2014 with a range of more\u00a0than 8,000 miles (12,874 km) \u2014 indicate that China views\u00a0the United States as its major strategic adversary (The Indian\u00a0Express 2 May 1998).<\/p>\n
TENSION BETWEEN INDIA AND CHINA<\/strong><\/p>\nTibet was the traditional buffer state between the two Asian\u00a0giants \u2014 India and China. However, after its occupation by\u00a0China, this neutral zone of peace collapsed. It escalated\u00a0tension between the two, which culminated into the Sino-\u00a0Indian war in 1962. China defeated the Indian army and is\u00a0now occupying the Aksai Chin range in Northern India, which\u00a0is claimed by India.<\/p>\n
According to a report submitted by American author John\u00a0F. Avedon to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee\u00a0on 17 September 1987, \u201cOne quarter of China\u2019s 350-strong\u00a0nuclear missile force is in Tibet.\u201d Subsequently, the Australian\u00a0Nuclear Disarmament Party in a press release on 28 October\u00a01987 expressed its grave concern and stated that \u201cnuclear\u00a0missiles are reported to be deployed as follows: 70 mediumrange,\u00a020 intermediate-range at Nagchuka, ICBM base at\u00a0Nyingtri, Kongpo and Powo Tramo and nuclear reactors at\u00a0Golino. Deployment of the above nuclear missiles in Tibet\u00a0could be aimed primarily at India\u201d (The Times of India 1988).<\/p>\n
India has long accused China of threatening nuclear attack.\u00a0This had led China\u2019s late Prime Minister, Zhou Enlai, to\u00a0respond that if China really wanted to destroy India he would\u00a0gather 100 million Chinese in Tibet and order them to urinate\u00a0downhill \u2014 washing India into the ocean. Zhou\u2019s remark\u00a0underlines the Himalayas\u2019 enormous strategic importance.\u00a0All of India\u2019s great rivers rise in the Himalayas (Margolis\u00a01997).<\/p>\n
India\u2019s rapid development of a nuclear arsenal, a powerful\u00a0navy and tactical and medium-ranged missiles, has heightened\u00a0tensions between Delhi and Beijing. Intelligence sources say\u00a0India\u2019s new intermediate-range missile, the \u201cAgni,\u201d has been\u00a0designed to fire nuclear warheads at Chinese targets as far\u00a0away as the major industrial centres of Chengdu, Lanzhou,\u00a0Xian and Wuhan. A longer range 5,000 km version capable\u00a0of hitting Beijing is under development. India\u2019s security\u00a0sources say \u201cAgni\u201d is a counter-force weapon against Chinese\u00a0missiles pointed at north India from the Tibetan Plateau\u00a0(Margolis 1997).<\/p>\n
China supplied over 50 M-11 missiles to Pakistan between\u00a01992 and 1994. It also supplied 5,000 ring magnets for the\u00a0uranium enrichment facility for making nuclear bombs at\u00a0Kahuta in 1995. Pakistan stored the M-11 missiles in\u00a0canisters at its Sargodha airbase and has been constructing a\u00a0missile factory using Chinese equipment. This illicit trade\u00a0was clearly a violation by China of the Nuclear Non-\u00a0Proliferation Treaty which it signed in 1992. In 1997, Pakistan\u00a0announced that another missile, the Hatf-III, which is actually\u00a0a Chinese M-9 had been successfully test-fired (India Today\u00a020 April 1998).<\/p>\n
According to Indian defence experts, China has supplied\u00a0technology know-how to Pakistan to produce surface-tosurface\u00a0ballistic missiles called \u201cGhauri\u201d. Pakistan successfully\u00a0tested its \u201cGhauri\u201d missile as a counter measure to India\u2019s\u00a0\u201cAgni\u201d on 6 April 1998. Air Commander Jasjit Singh,\u00a0Director of India\u2019s Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis,\u00a0said, \u201cObviously Pakistan is in the process of legitimising its\u00a0missiles programme as indigenous even though it has Chinese\u00a0help, \u201d (The Times of India 1998). The \u201cGhauri\u201d missile of\u00a0Pakistan is nothing but a primitive CSS-5 (DF-21) sold by\u00a0China to Pakistan, reported the Indian daily The Tribune on\u00a015 April 1998.<\/p>\n
China is strengthening its defence by elongating runways\u00a0at 11 airbases in Tibet. This will enable Chinese bombers to\u00a0take off with the maximum payload possible and hit targets\u00a0deep inside Indian territory. Between 1992-93 China acquired\u00a024 Russian-made Sukhoi-27 long-range multi-role fighters.\u00a0These high technology aircraft have a combat range of about\u00a03,000 km which are much superior fighters in terms of\u00a0radius of action, payload and fuel efficiency to the Indian\u00a0Jaguars and Mig-27s. The former Air Chief Marshal of\u00a0India, S.K. Kaul went on record to state that China posed\u00a0the primary long-term strategic challenge to India (The Times\u00a0of India 1996).<\/p>\n
The Defence Minister of India, George Fernandes, has\u00a0reportedly declared that China is India\u2019s \u201cpotential threat\u00a0number one\u201d and has said that India is surrounded by Chinese\u00a0military and naval activity. He further said China had its\u00a0nuclear weapons stockpiled in Tibet right along India\u2019s\u00a0borders and that there had been a lot of \u201celongation\u201d of\u00a0military airfields in Tibet where the latest versions of Russianmade\u00a0Sukhoi (SU-27) combat aircraft were going to be\u00a0stationed. \u201cAnd this happened in the last six months,\u201d he\u00a0added (The Tribune 4 May 1998).<\/p>\n
India tested three nuclear devices on 11 May 1998\u00a0followed by two tests on 13 May at Pokhran in Rajasthan.\u00a0Many experts believe this is in response to the Chinese\u00a0military build-up on the Tibetan Plateau. The Prime Minister\u00a0of India, A.B. Vajpayee, in a confidential letter addressed to\u00a0the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, dated 11\u00a0May 1998 said, \u201cWe have an overt nuclear weapons state\u00a0on our borders, a state (China) which committed armed\u00a0aggression against India in 1962…To add to the distress that\u00a0country has materially helped another neighbour of ours\u00a0(Pakistan) to become a covert nuclear weapons state.\u201d\u00a0India refuted China\u2019s condemnation of its tests by pointing\u00a0out that China had already conducted 45 nuclear tests (The\u00a0Times of India 18 May 1998). The tension between India\u00a0and China is boiling and at an all-time high.<\/p>\n
INTERNATIONAL ACTION<\/strong><\/p>\nSaving the environment of the Tibetan Plateau guarantees\u00a0the purity of major rivers that originate from it to form the\u00a0life-blood of millions of people downstream in Asia. Chinese\u00a0nuclear weapons production, nuclear tests and waste\u00a0dumping endangers the lives of millions of people in Asia.\u00a0Before it is too late, grassroots and international actions must\u00a0be taken to educate the Chinese and global community as to\u00a0the disastrous consequences of deployment of nuclear\u00a0weapons and dumping of toxic nuclear waste on the Tibetan\u00a0Plateau.<\/p>\n
SOME ACTION CAMPAIGNS COULD INCLUDE:<\/strong><\/p>\n\u2022 Writing letters to your parliamentarians, state\u00a0representatives, and to the United Nations\u00a0expressing concern over the nuclearisation and\u00a0militarisation of the Tibetan Plateau.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Organising street demonstrations, concerts, talks,\u00a0conferences to transform Tibet into a demilitarised\u00a0zone.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Calling upon China and other nations with nuclear\u00a0weapons to begin negotiations immediately on a\u00a0Nuclear Weapons Convention, which would prohibit\u00a0and eliminate all nuclear weapons by the next\u00a0century.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Join Abolition 2000, and other global lobbying\u00a0networks, to work to to create a nuclear-free world\u00a0(email: wagingpeace@napf.org).<\/p>\n
SIX STEPS CHINA AND OTHER NUCLEAR\u00a0STATES MUST TAKE TOWARDS A NUCLEARFREE\u00a0WORLD<\/strong><\/p>\n\u2022 Pursue earnestly the goal of abolition of nuclear\u00a0weapons<\/p>\n
\u2022 Make strategic reduction of nuclear arsenals timebound<\/p>\n
\u2022 Increase transparency and international\u00a0accountability\u00a0of nuclear weapons and waste<\/p>\n
\u2022 Ban production and sale of weapons of mass\u00a0destruction<\/p>\n
\u2022 Enforce international embargoes and sanctions\u00a0against treaty breakers<\/p>\n
\u2022 Educate the public and government officials about\u00a0the dangers of nuclear weapons<\/p>\n
CONCLUSION<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Tibetan Plateau has been militarised and weaponised\u00a0by China in pursuit of its own myopic designs without any\u00a0consideration for the lives and well-being of the Tibetan\u00a0people and their environment. Given the poor record of\u00a0Chinese nuclear waste management and the lack of advanced\u00a0technology to contain nuclear wastes, the implications in\u00a0nuclearising the Tibetan Plateau for Tibet, China, and its\u00a0neighbours is truly alarming.<\/p>\n
Militarisation of the Tibetan Plateau with its attendant\u00a0pollution is an important regional and global issue because it\u00a0is the source of major river waters for India, China, Nepal,\u00a0Bhutan, Pakistan, Burma, Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia,\u00a0Vietnam and Laos. Upsetting the ecological balance of the\u00a0high Tibetan Plateau also affects the jet streams that blow\u00a0over it, and this in turn is found to be irreversibly linked\u00a0with the environment of the whole Asian continent and the\u00a0disturbance of global climatic patterns.<\/p>\n
The altar of the earth \u2014 the Tibetan Plateau \u2014 must be\u00a0saved from a nuclear holocaust for the survival of mankind.\u00a0This responsibility falls on the Chinese government, Tibetans\u00a0and the international community equally. We must act before\u00a0it is too late. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has championed\u00a0non-violence and proposed to the government of China\u00a0that they turn Tibet into a Zone of Peace as stated in His\u00a0Five Point Peace Plan (see Appendix 4), announced on 21\u00a0September 1987 in Washington DC, USA. But to no avail.<\/p>\n
India\u2019s Defence Minister, George Fernandes, during the\u00a0August 1989 International Convention on Tibet and Peace\u00a0in South Asia said, \u201c If Tibet becomes a zone of peace, free\u00a0from Chinese troops and nuclear weapons, there will be no\u00a0reason for India to maintain a large army on the Himalayan\u00a0heights. This would immediately enable both India and China\u00a0to reduce their military expenditure and use the money thus\u00a0saved for economic development\u201d(Fernandes 1991).<\/p>\n
China has vowed time and time again that they are a nofirst-\u00a0use nation and that they are on record as being strongly\u00a0in favour of nuclear abolition (Butler 1998). The head of\u00a0the Chinese delegation at the Second Session of the\u00a0Preparatory Committee for the 2000 Review Conference\u00a0of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of\u00a0Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in Geneva on 27 April 1998, Sha\u00a0Zukang, called for a convention on a total ban of nuclear\u00a0weapons to be concluded at an early date like the conventions\u00a0banning chemical and biological weapons (Xinhua 27 April\u00a01998). China on 23 July 1999 declared publicly its\u00a0endorsement of a treaty to maintain Southeast Asia as a\u00a0nuclear-weapons-free zone, making it the first major military\u00a0power to do so (Inside China Today 1999a). These are positive\u00a0signs.<\/p>\n
As an initial act of goodwill the government of China\u00a0must first de-militarise the Tibetan Plateau and declare Tibet\u00a0a Zone of Peace. It should restore Tibet to its traditional\u00a0status as a neutral buffer state between the two most populous\u00a0nations in the world \u2014 China and India. Such an action\u00a0would not only benefit Tibet, China itself and its neighbours,\u00a0but also the whole Asian continent and the millions of people\u00a0across the globe. Moreover, such a concrete initiative will\u00a0help foster a more friendly and compassionate world for all\u00a0our children to live in and to share with all other sentient\u00a0beings.<\/p>\n
Source: Tibet 2000 Environment and Development Issues\/DIIR<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Radioactive wastes are chemical wastes which contain their\u00a0own unique blend of hundreds of distinctly unstable atomic\u00a0structures called radio-isotopes. Each radio isotope has its\u00a0own lifespan and potency for giving off\u00a0alpha, beta and gamma rays. These rays…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nuclear-threats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":827,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions\/827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}