CHINA'S FPOURTH NUCLEAR TEST AGAIN CATCHES WASHINGTON BY SURPRISE
The announcement October 28 by the government of the People's Republic of China that the country's fourth test of nuclear weapons had been successfully carried out not only took the worid headlines away from Johnson at the height of his tour in the Far East, it caused consternation throughout imperialist ruling circles. While the experts in their pay had correctly predicted that another test was forthcoming, they were once again caught by surprise by the speed with which China is developing its nuclear capacities.
What astonished the experts in particular was that China's scientists and engineers combined a guided missile test with the explosion of the weapon. This was taken to mean that China now has the capacity to reach 400 miles beyond its borders to answer any attack mounted by an aggressive power like the United States.
In announcing the test, the Hsinhua news agency again repeated China's promise not to be the first to use nuclear weapons: “The conducting of necessary and limited nuclear tests and the development of nuclear weapons by China are entirely for the purpose of defense, with the ultimate aid of destroying the nuclear weapons. We solemnly declare once again that at no time and in no circumstances will China be the first to use nuclear weapons."
This promise stands in diametric opposition to the ominous publicity, emanating from even such figures as former President Eisenhower, advocating the use of nuclear weapons by the U.S. and suggesting a preemptive strike against China.
To this it should be added that the U.S. already has a grim record in this respect. President Truman gained the obloquy of all mankind for all time to come by ordering two atom bombs to be dumped on populous cities in Japan. He claimed that this frightful action would "save lives" and "shorten the war." The truth was that the Japanese government was already suing for peace. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were sacrificed in part as a mere experiment, in part to terrorize the Soviet Union and as an indication of what the U.S. proposed to begin with in World War III.
The reaction in Washington to Peking's announcement of its latest success, was reported by the New York Times October 29. "Some atomic weapon experts privately acknowledged that they had been caught by surprise by the missile test, which came sooner and was more technically advanced than had been expected," said the Times. "Furthermore, the Chinese ability to make a warhead small enough for a missile -- one of the biggest challenges of atomic weapon technology -- was viewed by some experts as further confirmation of the progress Communist China was making."
Senator Bourke B. Hickenlooper, who is senior Republican on the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, summed up this reaction in an interview with United Press International:
"I don't know of any other country that succeeded in getting a guided missile and getting it on target the first try. But I think we should take the position they have done it. It takes a pretty highly complicated engineering and physics program to get one of these things on the road."