Sunday Times, London
London, Apr 20: The nuclear test grounds in the wastes of the Gobi desert have fallen silent but veterans of those lonely places are speaking out for the first time about the terrible price exacted by China’s zealous pursuit of the atomic bomb.
They talk of picking up radioactive debris with their bare hands, of sluicing down bombers that had flown through mushroom clouds, of soldiers dying before their time of rare diseases, and children born with mysterious cancers.
These were the men and women of Unit 8023, a special detachment charged with conducting atomic tests at Lop Nur in Xinjiang province, a place of utter desolation and — until now — complete secrecy. “I was a member of Unit 8023 for 23 years,” said one old soldier in an interview. “My job was to go into the blast zone to retrieve test objects and monitoring equipment after the explosion.
“When my daughter was born she was diagnosed with a huge tumour on her spinal cord. The doctors blame nuclear fallout. She’s had two major operations and has lived a life of indescribable hardship.”
Hardship and risk counted for little when China was determined to join the nuclear club at any cost. Soldiers galloped on horseback towards mushroom clouds, with only gas masks for protection. Scientists jumped for joy, waving their little red books of Maoist thought, while atomic debris boiled in the sky. Engineers even replicated a full-scale Beijing subway station beneath the sands of the Gobi to test who might survive a Sino-Soviet armageddon.
New research suggests the Chinese nuclear tests from 1964 to 1996 claimed more lives than those of any other nation. Jun Takada, a Japanese physicist, has calculated that up to 1.4 million people were exposed to fallout and 190,000 of them may have died from diseases linked to radiation. The victims included Chinese, Uighur Muslims and Tibetans, who lived in these remote regions.
It is the voices of the Chinese veterans, however, that will resonate loudest in the nation. One group has boldly published letters to the state council and the central military commission — the two highest government and military bodies — demanding compensation. China has already responded to pressure from the groups. Last year Li Xueju, the minister of civil affairs, let slip that the state had started to pay “subsidies” to nuclear test personnel.