WASHINGTON, 24 July — Sen. Jesse Helms, the Republicans’ most outspoken conservative on the Hill, and a leading member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is attacking China for failing to curb exports of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and missile delivery systems; actions he says go against agreements the country signed with the United States.
“During the past 20 years, the People’s Republic of China has made 15 formal nonproliferation pledges — seven related to the proliferation of nuclear technology, six regarding the transfer of missile technology and two commitments undertaken at the time the PRC (People’s Republic of China) joined the Biological Weapons Convention in 1997,” Sen. Helms said in a letter he recently distributed to senators.
Due to the China’s decision not to enforce its commitments, Helms wants his colleagues to reassess US-Sino relations.
Helms says China has “repeatedly and massively” violated its arm sales promises and has become “an increasing aggressive proliferator.”
Due to this, he is urging the Bush Administration to continue to enforce US export restrictions on satellite sales to China. Helms also sharply criticized recent US polices to China: “At the same time, successive US administrations have been reluctant to use nonproliferation sanctions aggressively,” he said. “In fact, there has been a constant willingness to waive sanctions in exchange for commitments, rather than results.”
Along with the letter, the senator also released a chart showing a timeline of what he claimed was evidence of China’s arm sales violations.
The chart, based on unclassified and declassified government documents, enumerates Chinese weapons sales from 1981 to 2001. It outlines nuclear weapons goods sold to Pakistan and Iran, as well as ballistic missile transfers to Libya, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Syria. This despite Chinese “pledges” and agreements not to sell nuclear or missile goods to states seeking weapons of mass destruction.
