Chinese Arms Exports To Iran Pose Continuing Threat To Israel's Security And Other U.S. Strategic Interests, Says New Report Of AJCommittee's Asia Institute

American Jewish Committee
Monday, 24 November 1997

December 3 Los Angeles Seminar Will Examine Issue

Iran has sought and gained significant help from China in its drive to acquire weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them, posing an ongoing threat to U.S. strategic interests including the security of Israel and moderate Arab states, according to a new report by the American Jewish Committee's Asia and Pacific Rim Institute (APRI).

China, along with Russia, has been a primary supplier of technology and material for Iran's missile programs. Although Chinese leader Jiang Zemin pledged to President Clinton that his nation would halt its sales of these destabilizing technologies at their October summit meeting, China's adherence to similar promises in the past is mixed, according to the APRI report, to be released at a December 3 AJC/APRI conference in Los Angeles on "Chinese Arms and Technology Transfers to Iran.".

The report, "Silkworms and Summitry: Chinese Arms Exports to Iran and the US-China Relationship," written by Dr. Bates Gill, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Project at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, examines the concerns and developments surrounding Chinese arms transfers to Iran.

In a foreword to the report, Barry Jacobs, assistant director of APRI, notes that "Iran remains, despite the election of a so-called moderate Islamic cleric -- Mohammad Khatemi -- as president, the single greatest threat to the security of a crucial region in the Middle East and Central Asia….The Iranian government continues its all-out program to acquire weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them. Both China and Russia have been providing critical components and technology for the manufacture and deployment, in less than two years, of a new Iranian intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of striking targets throughout the Middle East."

Dr. Gill states that serious concerns persist. "China continues to provide Iran with systems and technologies which contribute to further development of its cruise and ballistic missile capability, as well as to its reported nuclear, chemical and biological weapon-related programs," he writes.

"With the exception of Pakistan and possibly North Korea, China's arms trade relationship with Iran has been more quantitatively and qualitatively comprehensive and sustained than with any other recipient," he adds. Such trade has included thousands of tanks, armored personnel vehicles and artillery piece, several hundred surface-to-air, air-to-air, cruise, and ballistic missiles and thousands of anti-tank missiles, more than one hundred fighter aircraft and dozens of small warships. China has also aided Iran's development of its own ballistic and cruise missile capabilities and provided technologies and assistance in development of Iran's chemical and nuclear weapons programs.

"Perhaps most importantly," writes Dr. Gill, "China appears to have made significant contributions to Iran's indigenous military production capability through the provision of scientific expertise, technical cooperation, technology transfers, production technologies, blueprints, and dual-use transfers."

Examining the October 1997 Summit meeting between the US and China and the two years of negotiations leading up to it, Dr. Gill remains skeptical of the "authoritative, written communications" that China provided to the US assuring no new nuclear assistance to Iran. "It remains to be seen whether China will be able to fully implement and enforce the pledges and new nuclear export guidelines it has set out for itself."

In conclusion, he states that "concerns for the future will include the establishing of an effective and comprehensive Chinese export control system, assuring China's ability to monitor the flow of dual-use technologies as China's economy continues to grow, and gaining further credible evidence of China's acceptance and adherence to international nonproliferation norms. For the United States and the international community, this process can be supported through policies which present a clear international consensus on nonproliferation issues, combine sanctions with positive incentives and steadily involve China in the understanding and development of international nonproliferation practices and procedures as it takes its full place as a major power in the global system."

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org