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TIME - Man of the Year
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CompactPublishing-TimeMagazine-TimeManOfTheYear-Win31MSDOS.iso
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060192
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06019910.000
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1992-09-10
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THE WEEK, Page 23WORLDChina's Smoke Signal
An underground nuclear blast tells the world where to go
In what amounts to an obscene gesture to the rest of the
world, China exploded a nuclear warhead with a yield of 1 million
tons of tnt at its underground test range in far northwestern
Xinjiang province. It was the largest such blast the Chinese
have ever detonated and far bigger than the 150-kiloton testing
limit the U.S. and the former Soviet Union have been observing
under a 1974 agreement.
Chinese officials confirmed that the explosion was for
military purposes, but then blandly added that Beijing's testing
program has "exercised restraint" to conform with the
government's "basic position for complete prohibition and
thorough destruction of nuclear weapons."
Increasingly at odds with post-cold war norms, China also
claims there is no truth in Western charges that it secretly
sells nuclear and ballistic missile technology to Third World
countries, colludes to evade customs duties or violates
copyright agreements.