Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=01/12/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=China Missile (L-only)

NUMBER=2-271302

BYLINE=Jim Randle

DATELINE=Beijing

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: China's government is strongly objecting to U-S plans to build a defense against ballistic missiles. Beijing's criticism of

Washington is taking on new urgency as the new Bush administration appears ready to press forward with the controversial and costly

missile shield. V-O-A's Jim Randle reports from Beijing.

TEXT: China urged Washington to abandon plans to build a complex system of rockets and sensors designed to destroy nuclear tipped

missiles headed for the United States.

China says the proposed U-S National Missile Defense would upset the current world strategic balance by rendering China's small number of

nuclear missiles irrelevant. Defense experts say a smaller scale missile defense system might also protect Taiwan from the hundreds of short

range ballistic missiles Beijing has pointed at the island. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that should be returned to

central government control - and regards any defense of Taiwan by the United States as interference in China's internal affairs.

Beijing's intensified concern grew out of statements by President-Elect George W. Bush's Defense Secretary nominee Donald Rumsfeld,

who strongly endorsed the N-M-D during a congressional hearing this week.

The Bush campaign strongly criticized the Clinton-Gore

administration for alleged weakness and inattention to defense issues, particularly missile defenses. Mr. Bush, a Republican, won

a narrow victory over Democrat Al Gore in last November's election.

While Republicans generally favor missile defense programs, the task of hitting a missile streaking through space is staggeringly difficult and expensive. So far the United States has spent about 60 billion dollars over many years on missile defenses, but none of them work reliably, at least not yet. (Signed).

NEB/JR/PLM