The US warned China yesterday it would not tolerate a violent solution to the future of Taiwan.
"We would determine and consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means as a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States. That's about as strong a statement as one can make," State Department spokesman Mr James Rubin said.
Russia was taking a wait-and-see approach to China's announcement that it had mastered the technology to build the neutron bomb, ITAR-TASS news agency reported yesterday.
The agency quoted Foreign Minister Mr Igor Ivanov as saying that Russia wanted to receive all relevant information from China about its neutron bomb capabilities before formulating a more concrete position on the issue.
"Russia's principal position is to strengthen nuclear non-proliferation on the one hand and the strategic stability in the world on the other," Mr Ivanov said.
Meanwhile, Japan said it would urge China to abandon neutron bomb technology. "It does not infringe on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. But with regards to all nuclear weapons, our country hopes that efforts towards nuclear disarmament will be strengthened," top government spokesman Mr Hiromu Nonaka said.
Japan is the only country to have been attacked with nuclear bombs, which devastated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the second World War.
