IPPNW-GLO Director, Chuck Johnson, visited Beijing last September, where he had the opportunity to provide a lecture on IPPNW’s work at a graduate class for future diplomats at the Chinese National University. Additionally, he met with leaders of the Chinese Medical Association, where they discussed the value of teaching medical students and other health professionals about the health effects of nuclear war, opening the doors to conducting a seminar on that topic at Peking Medical School in the future.
In addition, the IPPNW GLO director met with officers of the Chinese Arms Control and Disarmament Association, where they found areas of agreement between IPPNW and the Chinese government, including support for all nuclear-weapon states to establish a no-first-use policy and agree not to use nuclear weapons against countries that do not possess them. Common ground was also found in the view that nuclear sharing between countries that have nuclear weapons and their allies (five countries in NATO, plus, now Belarus), is a violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and that the Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) agreement to sell nuclear powered submarines to Australia that use weapons grade uranium as fuel, exploits a dangerous proliferation loophole of the NPT. There was a discussion of having future Track II exchanges with IPPNW leaders on these issues of agreement and on those topics on which we disagree, seeking mutual understanding.
