ALTHOUGH some may like to describe it as a stereotype, there are reasons to believe that cruelty is a Chinese national characteristic. The record of the Chinese in torturing the prisoners, and in violating their human rights speaks of the same. Moreover, the number of people awarded death penalty is also the highest in China. Just a cursory glance on twentieth century China and one cannot miss the importance and the wide usage of cruelty element to suppress political dissent throughout the century.

Whether it was crushing of the rebellions like that of boxers or the "Communist annihilation" campaigns of Chiang Ki Shek or the cultural revolution by the Communists themselves, torture has always proved to be a powerful instrument in the hands of the Chinese state against the dissenter. The stories of widespread torture inflicted upon the people of Tibet and Sinkiang are too well known to be repeated.

Now the Chinese authorities have decided to be more humane in killing their dissenters. China is known to be the country where the largest number of people are executed every year. Actually, the report indicates that the Chinese authorities execute more people each year than the rest of the world combined. Even in the methods of execution Chinese have hardly progressed. A single bullet is shot through either head or heart. There are widespread reports that it is done to facilitate the selling of the organs of the dead. For sometime now, the Chinese authorities have been experimenting with certain deadly drugs on condemned prisoners.

According to a Reuters' dispatch, China is close to standardising a cocktail for lethal injections which will ultimately replace bullets in many execution grounds across the country. Quoting Wenhui Daily, the Reuters' dispatch reports that gun shot executions will continue and lethal injections will be promoted only gradually. There are reports that prisoners who feel relieved to be spared a bullet have rolled up their sleeve for the deadly needle and some have even voiced gratitude.

That the Chinese on the doorstep of twenty-first century will change a lot is very difficult to say. Whether the Communists remain in power or some sort of democracy dawns on China for the first time in history is yet in the womb of future. But whether the "psyche of the authorities will change is very difficult to say. At least three major changes in the Chinese political system have failed to vouch for it.

Duo's Doublespeak

If the Russian and American statements of last week are to be believed the world will be much safer from the nuclear weapons of these two countries after two decades. According to a recently signed pact between Russia and the US, both the countries would destroy 68 tonnes of plutonium over the next twenty years. The quantity is sufficient to make around a thousand nuclear bombs of sufficient power. The pact was signed by US Vice-President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov.

Although the deal had been earlier agreed upon between Russian President Putin and American President Clinton in their last summit at Moscow, the signing has come of Putin's New York visit to attend the UN Millennium Summit where he is slated to meet his American counterpart. The $5.7 billion programme will take twenty years and most of the funding will come from the US. Both the countries would destroy 34 tonnes of plutonium each and this represents twenty-five per cent of Russian military stockpile and about thirty-three per cent that of United States. At first glance it seems that the Americans are not only bearing the more financial burden of this plan but also destroying a larger capacity of their own in comparison to the Russian capabilities.

But in reality if one were to understand that the Americans are much more sophisticated and accurate in their technology, the game is revealed more in their favour. Whenever the superpowers show to the world that they are reducing their nuclear capabilities in reality they are not doing any thing of that sort. They at least continue to maintain the balance by implementing new technologies.

When the computer simulated models were able to provide better results than the explosions themselves it dawned on them that nuclear explosions should be stopped. The same seems to be true of the drama of destruction of 68 tonnes of plutonium. The superpowers now have better weapon systems and technologies than the ones they are discarding. While the Russians are going to use the whole of 34 tonnes of the de-weaponised plutonium as fuel, the Americans may not use all of it for fuel.

The Nuclear Control Institute which claims itself to be an independent group involved with campaigns for disarmament has claimed that proper monitoring of the use of plutonium in Russian reactors may not be possible. There seem to be some interests of the plutonium industry also involved which was in decline and now will be revived as a result of this pact. Believing the superpowers that they mean real peace and thus are reducing their arsenals may be like believing the propaganda of a highly sophisticated liar. The West believes in "no way but onwards" philosophy as far as the weapon technology is concerned. And that must be clearly understood by policy planners.