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Editorial: Give up the nuclear games

On Saturday morning, 55,000 people from 32 countries gathered at Hiroshima Peace Park to commemorate the 60th anniversary of a tragic day in the history of the world -- the detonation of a nuclear bomb over Hiroshima -- and to call for an end to nuclear weapons. The people of Taiwan, who daily face the threat posed by China's 700 missiles, feel deeply the significance of this day.

Sixty years ago, the use of nuclear bombs brought forward the end of World War II and stopped Japan from engaging in a desperate defense of their homeland. But the terrible price paid on that day did not stop the further development of nuclear weapons. To the contrary, during the Cold War, the US and the USSR engaged in a nuclear face-off. This led to the building of enough nuclear weapons to destroy the planet hundreds of times over. Now China, India and Pakistan have also joined the nuclear club, putting the whole world under the shadow of nuclear destruction. That we have not destroyed ourselves is not because of our belief in peace. Instead, over the last decade or so, it has been the fear of mutually assured destruction and nuclear armageddon.

The "balance of terror" assumes that all participants are rational, and that they would not risk the lives and property of their people by a rash push toward nuclear war. But is the Chinese government really so rational? Mao Zedong (毛澤東) once said he'd rather the people went without trousers than that China had no nuclear weapons and that China could, with its huge population, afford to lose millions of people to nuclear war. Quite clearly, the lives and property of the people are not an important consideration for the Chinese leadership. And then there is the recent comment by Major General Zhu Chenghu (朱成虎), suggesting that China would destroy hundreds of American cities if the US intervened in a cross-strait conflict. Clearly China's military establishment has different standards and attitudes regarding the use of nuclear weapons to those of civilized nations.

China lacks respect for peace, human rights and democratic values. This is the main obstacle to unification and also the reason China's rise has caused such anxiety among neighboring countries. Both the US and Japan question the need for China's military buildup when it faces no external threats. It has 700 missiles targeting Taiwan, and its medium and long-range missiles can reach targets in Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia and even the US. In addition to creating anxiety, this rapid military buildup is driving an arms race in the region.

If China wishes to become a civilized country and let people believe that its "rising" is indeed peaceful, its first act should be to declare the Taiwan Strait a non-nuclear and demilitarized zone. If the two sides of the Strait could sign a peace treaty, this would be a manifestation of the ideal that Chinese do not fight other Chinese. If China could relinquish the 700 missiles targeting Taiwan, it would help immeasurably in reducing the distance between the two sides of the Strait.

Even the pro-China chairman-elect of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), has said there is no basis for unification unless China apologizes for the Tiananmen Massacre. If China did use nuclear weapons against Taiwan, the loss of life would be massive.

Nuclear weapons are of no use in cross-strait affairs and serve as a barrier to interaction. From late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Taiwan's leaders have always insisted that Taiwan will not develop nuclear weapons, nor use them. It is time for China to make a similar announcement.
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