China may have provided Pak with N-weapons designs: document
China might have provided its
China might have provided its
close ally Pakistan a
fairly comprehensive package of proven
nuclear weapons design in late 1970s
and the CIA knew about
it, according to a recently
declassified document.
"The CIA had evidence
suggesting close Pakistan-China
nuclear cooperation, to the point of
facilitating a nuclear
weapons capability, although the
intelligence community saw
this as possibly a special case
based on an alliance that had
existed since 1963," according
to recently declassified CIA
data, obtained by the National
Security Archive (NSA) under
the Freedom of Information Act.
According to the document, this
allegation has come up
before, for example in a State
Department document and in
major news stories but this is the
first time the CIA has
released some of its own information.
"The estimate highlights some
of the main developments,
including 'verbal consent (in 1974) to
help Pakistan
develop a
nuclear blast capability', 'hedged
and conditional commitment'
in 1976 to provide nuclear weapons
technology, and unspecified
excised information that raised the
possibility that China
has
provided a fairly comprehensive
package of proven nuclear
weapon design information," it
said.
"Even without Chinese help, the
Pakistanis could develop
a nuclear weapon, but access to
Chinese weapons design and
test data might be crucial in
establishing Islamabad's
confidence in an untested weapons
capability," said a 1983
national intelligence estimate of
the CIA, which is heavily
excised.
The exchanges may not have
been one-way and the reference
to Chinese "involvement" in
Pakistan's
uranium enrichment
programme probably refers to gas
centrifuge technology, which
Pakistan shared with China, it noted.
Significant portions of the
document covering technology
sharing are excised, but more may be
learned if additional
details are released under appeal, the
NSA added.
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