CONFIDENTIAL
5. Particular emphasis was placed in the article on the potential of the Anti-Chemical Corps to aid the civil authorities and mention was made of a nuclear contamination monitoring exercise held in Lanzhou in 1985 in cooperation with "civil units responsible for geology, environmental protection and sanitation". It would seem possible, therefore, that this particular article was placed in the "China Daily" as part of the recent campaign by the Chinese Government to allay fears on nuclear safety.
6.
A separate Xinhua News Agency item dated 4 August 1986 but probably based on the same interview stated that the Anti- Chemical Corps had taken part in all China's nuclear tests "and completed related effect tests and safety protection missions". The spokesman went on to say that the Corps, "equipped with basically Chinese-made equipment and apparatuses, completed 277 scientific and technological results between 1981 and 1985" and that the Anti-Chemical Warfare Academy has graduated 14,000 people.
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