WASHINGTON, JAN 1: China tested a neutron bomb in late 1980s using technology stolen from US nuclear laboratories, the US Congressional panel has said.The considerable amount of technology which was given to China by two private companies, Hughes and Loral, or obtained from the US by stealth or openly includes neutron bomb technology, guidance technology for improving the accuracy of Chinese ballistic missiles and supercomputer technology, the panel revealed.It has already been disclosed that China gave Pakistan the model of an atomic bomb, technology to produce bomb-grade material, missile technology and 34 to 50 M-11 missiles, apart from other weapons technology transfers.This has not prevented President Bill Clinton from hailing China as America's ``strategic partner'', and giving China a role in South Asian affairs, observers noted. The neutron bomb, which the Chinese tested with American technology, has been called the ``capitalist bomb,'' for it kills people without destroying property. Theonly other countries which have them are apparently the US and Russia.China is now known to have atomic, hydrogen and nuclear bombs and short-range, medium range and intercontinental missiles, and has emerged as a leading proliferator helping Pakistan against India, Iran and other countries. Against this background, analysts said, it is baffling to find the US advising India that it does not need nuclear weapons or medium range and long-range missiles.Washington would like New Delhi not to deploy even short-range missiles, they point out. That is the advice Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott is expected to press on Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh later this month, apart from seeking India's ratification of the CTBT while the US has yet to ratify it.Disclosures of US double standards on China and India have undermined the arguments Talbott has been advancing, they add.China denies US charges on missile techBEIJING: China today denounced as ``sheer fabrication'' allegations in aUnited States Congressional committee report that Beijing acquired sensitive American military technology through commercial satellite launches. Foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao condemned the US House of Representatives committee finding as an ``ill distortion of China's peaceful use of space technology.'' By doing so, the report was ``deliberately undermining China-US relations,'' Zhu said in a statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency. The condemnation was the second issued by Zhu in two days and underscored China's outrage. In a separate Xinhua dispatch, a spokesman for China Aerospace Corp accused the US media and members of Congress of misleading the American public for political reasons.
