US threatened to China with nukes at least five times

WASHINGTON: China went nuclear because the US threatened it at least in five specific instances, a non-proliferation official has said and warned that countries like Japan will go nuclear once they are convinced that nuclear powers are not interested in disarmament at an earlier date.

Joseph Cirincione, director of the Carnegie Endowment's non-proliferation project, has mentioned one such incident in the latest `foreign policy' issue and said that these instances have been listed by historians.

During the Korean war, in which China intervened on the side of invading North Korea when it was being pushed back, American commander, General Douglas Macarthur, wanted to use atomic bombs and (atomic) artillery to decimate Chinese forces, Cirincione says.

After driving Chinese out, if his advice had been taken, Macarthur would have laid down "fields of suitable radio-active materials" to keep them off the peninsula for centuries, he says.

Such threats led Chinese leaders to conclude in favour of developing their own nuclear weapons, he says. After Chinese had developed nuclear weapons, the equations changed, Cirincione says, reports PTI.
 

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