Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1996 09:30:02 X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.0 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN Status: R 12 June 1996 (Reuter) - Naval vessels escorted the MV Greenpeace from Chinese waters on Wednesday after a brief incursion that environmental activists hailed as a victory in their campaign to get China to halt nuclear tests. The Greenpeace, which steamed from Manila on Saturday, was circled several times by a low-flying Chinese military aircraft shortly before entering Chinese waters around noon (0400 GMT). --- -- - 12 June 1996 (Reuter) - A controlled nuclear fusion device has been transferred from Germany to the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu for nuclear research, the Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday. The experimental device, known as ASDEX, would be used in research work by the Physics Research Institute in southwestern Sichuan province, Xinhua said. Germany agreed to transfer the device, built by Germany and the European Union, to China after building a larger device, it said. --- -- - 12 june 1996 Chinese officials had ordered the ship to leave China's territorial waters. The Greenpeace, carrying 32 crew and passengers from 16 nations, departed after Swedish captain Ulf Brigander signed papers in the presence of the Chinese declaring the ship was leaving. The crew said the ship was heading for Hong Kong. Brigander and other crewmembers first turned over to the Chinese what they said were gifts, including pictures of children with messages written by their parents reading: "We want to live in a nuclear-free world." --- -- - 12 June 1996 (Reuter) - "A ship belonging to the Greenpeace organisation, which illegally sailed into the mouth of the Yangtze river at noon today, has left Chinese territorial waters at 3.35 p.m. (0735 GMT)," Xinhua said. It gave no other details. The officials met Greenpeace captain Ulf Brigander and Greenpeace spokesman Xavier Pastor, along with two translators, but the outcome of their discussions was not immediately clear. --- -- - 12 June 1996 (Reuter) - Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said on Wednesday that China's leaders had told him they expected "conclusive" talks on a comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT) by the end of this year. Siazon returned to Manila on Tuesday after a week-long visit to China where he met President Jiang Zemin, Premier Li Peng and foreign ministry officials. "They said they are positively negotiating in Geneva and so they expect to have a conclusive negotiation on the CTBT by the end of the year," Siazon told reporters. --- -- - 12 June 1996 (Reuter) - China exploded more than two nuclear warheads simultaneously during its June 8 underground test, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on Wednesday. The newspaper, quoting government sources, reported that the U.S. government informed Tokyo of China's multiple test, part of its programme to produce smaller warheads for submarine-launched and multiple-targeted missiles. Nihon Keizai said China has recently bought computer simulation technology on nuclear warheads from Russia to develop multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicles (MIRV), which are missiles with more than one nuclear warhead aimed at different targets. --- -- - 12 june 1996 (Reuter) - The Chinese officials, some wearing camouflage-type uniforms and others in white, boarded the Greenpeace from four boats that had earlier identified themselves as harbour pilots. No force was used and no weapons were visible. --- -- - 12 june 1996 (Reuter) - A radio message from one of the Chinese vessels, which identified themselves as harbour pilots' boats, said: "Please stop this illegal act and leave our waters. This is a violation of international law." The Greenpeace crew tried to negotiate with the Chinese officials through an interpreter but it was not immediately clear what their response was. --- -- - 12 june 1996 (Reuter) - "We have crossed the line without using force, without provoking any confrontation," Greenpeace spokesman Xavier Pastor told Reuters. "Being in Chinese territory, bringing 32 people from different countries, we are already passing the message of cancelling of all nuclear tests by all countries forever," he said. --- -- - 12 June 1996 (Reuter) - A Chinese military aircraft circled the MV Greenpeace on Wednesday as the vessel approached China's territorial waters on a mission to persuade Beijing to halt nuclear tests. The twin-engined aircraft flew low over the ship carrying 32 passengers and crew just outside China's 12-mile (19 km) limit but did not attempt to communicate with the vessel. --- -- - 12 June 1996 (Reuter) - Activists of the environmental group Greenpeace in Hong Kong, defended their anti-nuclear protest voyage to China on Wednesday and dismissed accusations they would do more harm than good. "We have no wish to surprise or humiliate Chinese officials, nor do we seek confrontation," Anne Dingwall and Clement Lam wrote in a letter to Hong Kong's leading English-language newspaper, the daily South China Morning Post. --- -- - 12 June 1996 (UPI) -- Preliminary CIA reports indicate Pakistan has deployed nuclear-capable missiles provided by China, a move that would violate an agreement with the United States and trigger hundreds of millions of dollars in economic sanctions, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The reports, which U.S. officials stress have not been endorsed by Secretary of State Warren Christopher or President Clinton, have set off alarm bells in Washington as they would mean Pakistan now has a capability to fire nuclear-tipped rockets at India. U.S. officials say there is "no question" sanctions must be applied if the CIA report proves accurate.