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Title:  "Cranston: End PRC MFN if China-Iran Nuclear Ties Found." Speaking during a hearing, Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs chairman Alan Cranston said China's most-favored-nation status should be ended or have conditions placed upon it if proof is found that China has aided Iran's nuclear weapons development program. (911101)

Author:  MORSE, JANE A (USIA STAFF WRITER)
Date:  19911101

Text:
*EPF502

11/01/91 * CRANSTON: END PRC MFN IF CHINA-IRAN NUCLEAR TIES FOUND (Article on SFRC hearing on U.S. policy in Asia) (590) By Jane A. Morse USIA Staff Writer

Washington -- China's most-favored-nation (MFN) trading status should be ended or have conditions placed upon it, if conclusive proof is found that China has been aiding Iran in a nuclear weapons program, according to Senator Alan Cranston (Democrat of California).

Reports that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons "confronts the world with a real, immediate danger, not just a nebulous, academic concern over proliferation," Cranston, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said during an October 31 hearing.

Cranston called it "particularly disturbing" that over the past three years Iran's leaders reportedly have actively sought nuclear related technology from China, as well as from India, Argentina, Pakistan and Germany.

Noting that renewal of China's MFN status for another year is not yet settled, Cranston said he is writing a letter to all Senate conferees (who are meeting with their House counterparts on their respective MFN bills) urging them to get an intelligence briefing before taking any further action on the question.

"The time has come, I think, to begin a thorough reassessment of American foreign policy objectives in Asia and the world in relation to nuclear proliferation and the means to achieve these goals," Cranston said.

But Cranston's calls for a tighter non-proliferation regime received a gloomy reception from at least one of the witnesses at the October 31 hearing.

"In reality there is little we can do to prevent use of nuclear weapons in Asia if a country is determined to possess and use them," said Kevin Kearns of the Economic Strategy Institute. "The advanced state of the Iraqi nuclear program shows that a country determined to proceed with nuclear weapons can sign all the treaties it wants, allow IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspections and still continue all-out development of nuclear weapons, and with the help of other signatories to anti- proliferation protocols."

Donald Hellman, of the National Bureau of Asian and Soviet Research in Seattle, observed that "On one level, the

GE 2 EPF502 strategic nuclear balance remains the preserve of the military superpowers. It will be addressed in the current ongoing arms control negotiations, as well as in traditional power-balancing maneuvers."

Hellman said that "Nuclear proliferation and political disarray within the Soviet Union make nuclear questions of highest priority, and on this strategic level the Cold War superpowers will continue to play the critical roles."

James E. Auer, director of the Center for U.S.-Japan Studies and Cooperation at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, pointed out that "Saddam Hussein certainly served notice that the Soviet Union is not the only threat to global peace and prosperity.

"At present there remain major uncertainties about the future of the various republics of the Soviet Union, about what will happen in China both before and after the death of Deng Xiaoping, and about the Middle East," he said.

"A strong and coordinated marshaling of American and Japanese political and economic resources can, and in my opinion, should mightily influence the outcome of these and other areas of uncertainty," Auer said. He added that the U.S.-Japan security alliance is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago.

The October 31 hearing was the second in a series Cranston plans to hold in reassessing U.S. policy in Asia.

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