James Kynge

whose parents were so poor, who would read by the moonlight that was reflected off the snow, again, because his family couldn't afford candles.

So there is this incredible ancient culture of studying despite adversity and getting ahead, using the education ladder to correct for society's injustices and somehow to rise to the top, even despite your fate as belonging to an impoverished family.

So there's a real big amount of mythology around all of this stuff that makes this such a poignant story for me.

And it's also true, I think, Alice, that every Chinese person knows their Gaokao score and remembers it forevermore.

I mean, even 20 years after the event, if you ask them what was your Gaokao score, they can tell you immediately.

Well, I mean, it's really tough for somebody like me to know, but I would say, I mean, look at the nature of the official that has made this announcement.

Thomas DiNano, he is U.S.

Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.

He made these assertions at the United Nations Disarmament Conference in Geneva.

So the first thing to say is that this is the right person in the U.S.

administration to be making these comments.

And he made them at a very serious forum.

And it was in the nature of an announcement.

He said, I can reveal that the U.S.

government is aware that China has conducted nuclear explosive tests.

including preparing for tests with designated yields in the hundreds of tons.

He added that the China's military sought to conceal the testing by obfuscating the nuclear explosions because it recognized that these tests violate test ban commitments.

So, you know, the plain truth is that I have no idea.

But it does seem to me that we've got a very serious U.S.

official saying this and also saying that China has tried to obfuscate it, maybe muffle the shockwaves that come out from a test like this.