China conducted its second nuclear test this year on Friday, October 7, 1994. This act constitutes a defiance of the international moratorium on such blasts. The U. S. State Department said other nuclear powers around the world have honored the moratorium since 1992.
The blast was estimated at between 40 and 150 kilotons of TNT, but its precise nature was unknown because the Chinese did not say where the test was conducted, or give its strength. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, China is the only one of the five major nuclear powers still conducting nuclear weapons tests (Associated Press A-8). The other four powers are Russia, France, Britain, and the United States.
A comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, still to be negotiated, would put such nuclear tests to rest. Such a treaty is expected to be in effect by 1996. According to the Times article, the Chinese have stated, 'China will put an end to its nuclear test once the treaty comes into effect'" (Associated Press A-8).
Such nuclear testing is unsettling in a world still divided by political ideology. The threat once posed by the former Soviet Union has been replaced by threats that other countries will step into the nuclear arena. One communist/socialist country has merely replaced another in the ongoing threat to world peace. In addition to the threat posed by China, one could also add Korea and several middle eastern nations.
It is disconcerting to consider how much more nuclear testing is being conducted around the world--testing that the world press does not find out about.
Political candidates nationwide are resorting to negative campaigning in an effort to gain the attention of voters who have grown so cynical that "politicians who want to run positive messages find they don't work" (Rosenstiel A-1). The consequence of this negative emphasis is that the image most people have of any candidate is a negative one. Voters, will, in essence, vot...