Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=3-14-01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-273694

TITLE=CHINA MISSILE DEFENSE (L)

BYLINE=JIM RANDLE

DATELINE=BEIJING

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: China's top arms-control official says Beijing could face nuclear blackmail if the United States continues work on missile defenses. V-O-A's Jim Randle reports from Beijing, where the government is getting ready to send a delegation to the United States to persuade the Bush Administration to stop work on a missile defense system.

TEXT: Ambassador Sha Zukang says the proposed U-S National Missile Defense could de-fang China's small force of nuclear missiles capable of reaching targets in the United States something Beijing can not tolerate.

/// SHA ZUKANG ACT ///

China will not allow its legitimate means of self-defense to be weakened, or even taken away by anyone in anyway. This is one of the most important aspects of China's national security.

/// END ACT ///

U-S officials say a proposed system to shoot down ballistic-missile warheads streaking toward America could probably stop only a few dozen such weapons, and is designed to protect U-S cities from attacks by what are called - states of concern - not China.

But Mr. Sha says China has about two-dozen nuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, and has no intention of seeing its nuclear deterrent neutralized. He says before China had a credible nuclear force, the country was bullied by the United States and Soviet Union, each armed with thousands of nuclear warheads.

/// SHA ZUKANG ACT ///

What we need is a small, but effective, nuclear force to ward off ... possible blackmail or threat by other guys. China was about the only country which had this nightmare experience of being blackmailed with the use or threatened use of nuclear weapons. Including the Korean War, the Taiwan Crisis, and we had our difficulties with the former Soviet Union in the early '70's. So that made China decide we had to have some nuclear weapons of our own.

/// END ACT ///

Ambassador Sha says U-S worries about possible attacks from missiles under development in North Korea, Iran, and elsewhere, are exaggerated and unreasonable.

He says China does not want a confrontation with Washington over missile defenses, and has no desire to pour billions of dollars into a nuclear arms race if diplomacy fails to persuade Washington to abandon what he calls - its quest for absolute security.

Ambassador Sha spoke to reporters in Beijing a few days before Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen goes to Washington for talks with President Bush on strategic, political, and other issues. (SIGNED)

NEB/JR/RAE