§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he has any indication of China's capacity in respect of chemical and biological weapons.
§ Mr. LuceChina is a party to the 1972 biological weapons convention which prohibits the development, production, stockpiling and acquisition or retention of biological and toxin weapons. On its accession to the BWC on 15 November 1984, China stated that it has not produced or possessed such weapons and will never do so in future.
China is also a party to the 1925 Geneva protocol banning the use of chemical weapons. China participates actively in the current negotiations at the Geneva conference on disarmament on a total world-wide ban of the development, manufacture and stock-piling of chemical weapons. We are not aware of any public statement by China about the possession of such weapons.