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Introduction

Speak loudly, and leave your stick at home. That is apparently the Clinton Administration's weak imitation of Teddy Roosevelt when it comes to holding the People's Republic of China accountable in the battle against nuclear and chemical weapons proliferation. Having correctly identified proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as one of the gravest problems facing U.S. and world stability, the Clinton Administration has essentially acquiesced in the transgressions of the world's most brazen proliferator. With no meaningful resistance from Washington, the Communist government in Beijing is now engaged in the active worldwide distribution of nuclear and chemical weapons ingredients, as well as the ballistic missiles needed to deliver them. Their customers include some of the world's most fervently anti-Western regimes, such as Iran.

These actions constitute clear and continuing violations of the NPT. But rather than apply the sanctions called for in the NPT, the Clinton Administration has merely asked the Export-Import Bank to delay loan approvals to the PRC for 30 days. In the meantime, the Administration has asked the Communist Chinese government to investigate itself, no less. An American official made this remarkable statement to The Washington Post: "We are looking for information that would help us to let them off the hook."

While the PRC's most significant arms sales, particularly those of weapons of mass destruction, take place in secret, they are anything but a secret from the U.S. Government and our intelligence agencies. But because the Clinton Administration does not want to upset the U.S.-PRC relationship, it generally does not reveal these transactions. Only when the American intelligencecommunity becomes truly exasperated with a particularly egregious case does an illicit sale end up in the newspapers. The public record, therefore, constitutes but the tip of the Communist Chinese arms sales iceberg.

How Communist China Conducts Its Arms Sales

The PRC has set up numerous commercial entities to engage in its cynical and reckless arms production enterprise. The most active and dangerous of these is the China Poly Group Corporation, known variously as "Polytechnologies Incorporated," or "Baoli" in Chinese. The Poly Group is Communist China's leading merchant of death. They sell everything from small arms to the latest weapons of mass destruction in the People's Liberation Army arsenal.

Occupying almost a full block near Beijing's Forbidden City, "Poly Plaza" consists of two gleaming white marble towers connected by a four story-high exhibition hall and theater. "Poly Plaza" in English and Chinese gold letters runs across the face of the buildings. Using the $2.5 billion in net profits it made in one missile deal to the Middle East alone, Poly now has investments in property developments all over the PRC. The enterprise occupies a large piece of the Shanghai Securities Exchange Building in addition to its headquarters, luxury villas in Beijing, and even its own exclusive development zone on Hainan Island.

For all its nefariously destabilizing activities, Poly maintains a facade of perfect respectability. Poly's brochure describes the firm as an investment holding company. It does not mention that Poly is controlled by the People's Liberation Army's General Staff Department. Nor does it identify its President, He Ping, as a PLA officer--and Deng Xiaoping's son-in-law.

Nor is He Ping's relationship to the Communist elite exceptional. To the contrary, arms sales have been the preferred way for the PRC's ruling Communist families to become seriously rich. In 1988, for example, Poly was run by the sons-in-law of Deng, the President of the People's Republic of China, Yang Shangkun, and of the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Zhao Ziyang. When Zhao fell from grace, his son-in-law was replaced at Poly by another relative representing a rival political family.

Communist China's many other government-run arms dealers have fanciful names such as the China Rainbow Development Corporation, the 999 Enterprise Group, and the Blue Sky Industrial Corporation. These inoffensive titles mask deadly connections. Rainbow is in the nuclear business. 999 is a pharmaceutical empire directed by the PLA's Communist Party Department. Blue Sky is fittingly controlled by the Communist Chinese Air Force. And the list of these Communist arms-sale fronts is seemingly endless. Despite the PRC's desperate attempts at secrecy, the Defense Intelligence Agency's unclassified list reveals 67 such enterprises.

The Clinton Administration Turns a Blind Eye

What follows is an account of what is publicly known at the moment concerning nuclear and conventional arms control violations by the People's Republic of China.

By law, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs Lynn Davis is charged with recommending to the Secretary of State whether to take action against foreign countries and persons for violations of non-proliferation treaties and laws. These are some of the Communist Chinese cases pending on Ms. Davis's desk:

Ring Magnets for Pakistan: In accounts confirmed by both the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Director of Central Intelligence, The Washington Times, The Washington Post, and Nucleonics Week have all reported that Communist Chinese firms delivered 5,000 ring magnets to a nuclear weapons production facility in Pakistan. The rings will allow Pakistan to effectively double its capacity to enrich uranium while giving its facility qualitative technological advantages as well. The transfer violates Articles I and III of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and Sections 822, 824, 825, and 825 of the U.S. Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act.

Missile Sales to Pakistan: The United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency annual report to Congress in July 1995 indicated the agency's continued concern over Communist China's transfer of M-11 missiles to Pakistan. In testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on February 22, 1996, CIA Director John Deutsch confirmed the transfer. The transfer of missiles to Pakistan represents a violation of Section 73 of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act.

Missile Components Sold to Iran: Newspaper accounts of illicit sales of ballistic missile components by the PRC to Iran appeared in Defense News, The Washington Post, and The New York Times as early as the summer of 1995. This transfer also represents a violation of Section 73 of the Arms Export Control Act.

Cruise Missiles to Iran: According to The Washington Times, the Department of Defense raised concerns about Communist China's cruise missile sales to Iran with Undersecretary Davis. Again, the Director of Central Intelligence confirmed these sales on February 22. This transfer would be a violation of the Iran-Iraq Arms Non-Proliferation Act of 1992--a bill championed by Vice President Al Gore when he was in the Senate. Yet the Clinton-Gore Administration does not seem willing to enforce Gore's own legislation.

Ingredients for Chemical Weapons to Iran: On November 9, 1995, former CIA officer Bruce Riedel, now Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, voluntarily revealed to Chairman Benjamin Gilman of the House International Relations Committee his own concerns that Communist Chinese firms may have exported chemical weapons "precursors" to Iran. There is no indication the Administration is pursuing this violation of Article 81 of the Arms Export Control Act.

The Clinton Administration has failed to act in response to any of these five major cases of weapons proliferation by the PRC. None of these cases is new. The most recent case came to the attention of the Clinton Administration in November. Three of these cases were confirmed by the Director of Central Intelligence and a fourth was raised by a Defense Department official in open congressional hearings.

And all of the pertinent non-proliferation statutes the Administration has failed to enforce (such as the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act, the Arms Export Control Act, and the Iran-Iraq Arms Non-Proliferation Act) were passed with sponsorship of prominent Democrats during the time when the Democrats held control of both houses of Congress. President Clinton signed the nuclear transfers sanctions legislation himself.

Clinton's Broken Promises on Arms Control Enforcement

The Administration's inaction conflicts sharply with the Commander-in-Chief's own statements on the PRC and weapons proliferation while a candidate for President. On June 3, 1992, Candidate Clinton attacked then-President Bush for unconditionally granting most-favored-nation trading status to China in light of its proliferation record:

Despite promises from the administration of good behavior from the Chinese on non-proliferation, I am still concerned over possible Chinese sales of sophisticated weapons to regimes such as Syria and Iran. In addition, there are reports that they may be providing dual-use technology, information and training to Syria, Iran, Libya and Pakistan.

Earlier, on May 13, 1992, Clinton declared:

I believe we must do more to stop the threat of weapons of mass destruction. We need to clamp down on countries and companies that sell these technologies, punish violators and work urgently with all countries for tough, enforceable international non-proliferation agreements.

And on September 18, 1992, Clinton rightly observed:

And I perceive the biggest threat in the future to be, as I've said earlier, the proliferation of nuclear technology, as well as other weapons of mass destruction, to other countries.

It is doubly tragic that to the broken promises of treaty obligations of the People's Republic of China must be added the broken promises of Bill Clinton.Assessing the Danger to the World

What does Communist China's spread of nuclear and chemical weapons to autocratic regimes portend for the security of the United States and the civilized world? The acquisition by autocratic states of weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them is far more dangerous than the possession of the same weapons by the world's democracies. The way that states treat their own citizens provides the surest means for determining whether they can safely be allowed to possess nuclear and chemical weapons themselves. Autocracies that show little consideration for the welfare of their own populations are the most likely to attack the citizens of the United States or other countries.

What are the circumstances in which autocratic regimes would choose to use the nuclear and chemical weapons that Communist China is now supplying to them? Perhaps they might wish to paralyze the great powers of the world in order to demonstrate their stature in world politics, despite (or in consequence of) their economic and moral poverty. Perhaps they would threaten the democratic states of the world, in order to ensure that a pluralistic way of life by its contagious nature does not threaten their existence. Or possibly, as has so often been the case throughout history, they might undertake to bully neighboring nations to submit to their hegemony.

Most of the states working to acquire weapons of mass destruction from the PRC have already demonstrated dangerous behavior. The Islamic Republic of Iran, for example, is a documented sponsor of global terrorism. Imagine the disastrous consequences of marrying such a penchant for promoting violence with the technological capability to murder millions of people at will.

At the same time that the Clinton Administration has permitted this proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to accelerate, it has fought vigorously against the development of a missile defense to protect U.S. territory from those weapons, mounted on ballistic missiles. In place of a realistic national security policy, the Clinton Administration has substituted a request for a 30-day delay in new loans to the PRC.

Having raised the hopes of the American people that something would be done about a deadly serious problem, President Clinton has all but encouraged the Communist Chinese to ignore their international commitments and accelerate their campaign of spreading the tools of mass murder. As a consequence, more than three years into his Administration, the world is rapidly becoming a much more dangerous place.