N.Z. group criticises Chinese in Antarctic

Press, 2 July 1985, Page 8

N.Z. group criticises Chinese in Antarctic

By OLIVER RIDDELL in Wellington The actions of the Chinese in the Antarctic has been criticised by the New Zealand organising committee of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition. This follows yesterday’s reports from West German scientists about the behaviour of the Chinese in the Antarctic, and also of denials from the Chinese. The response of the Chinese Antarctic Scientific Committee to complaints of West German scientists that Chinese construction workers had upset Antarctic wildlife and scientific experiments was unbefitting a member of the Antarctic Treaty, said Ms Cath Wallace, in Wellington, on be-

half of the coalition. Her coalition consists of about 150 groups worldwide that are fighting for conservation of the Antarctic. She said that the coalition had copies of the report by Professor Dietrich Barsch. He had complained to the West German Committee for Antarctic Research that “groups of 30 to 50 Chinese souvenir hunters had ‘hit skuas with sticks, drove penguins over vertical cliffs, decorated the eggs of the gient petrel, and put broken glass and shards of metal into skua nests’.” Professor Barsch had been in the area of King George Island with five other respected West German scientists who had been helped by the Chileans, Ms

Wallace said. As well as maltreatment of the birds, Professor Barsch told in detail how the Chinese had behaved. Ms Wallaace said the coalition had refrained from publishing Professor Barsch’s report in the hope that the Chinese authorities would be suitably contrite and take urgent steps to ensure that it would never happen again. “But the Government of the Peoples Republic of China has dismissed these concerns,” Ms Wallace said. “This forces us to wonder whether China is fit to be a full member of the Antarctic Treaty, a status that it seeks.

“Gaining an entry ticket to the treaty as a full

member was the purpose of the scientific work for which the Chinese constructed their base in Antarctica. “Existing Antarctic Treaty consulative parties, including New Zealand, have good reason to pause and ask themselves whether it is in the best interests of Antarctica and the Antarctic Treaty that China should be admitted to their ranks,” Ms Wallace said. In allowing 600 construction workers to behave like this in the Antarctic, and to build a base on King George Island, which now had four stations within 30 square kilometres, China had shown a gross insensitivity to the Antarctic environment and to treaty values.