New York Times, August 26, 1996
U.S. Suspects China Is Helping Pakistan
Build Missile Factory
By TIM WEINER
WASHINGTON -- U.S. intelligence agencies strongly suspect
that China is helping Pakistan build a factory for medium-range
missiles, creating a new problem for efforts to control the
spread of
nuclear weaponry, government officials said Sunday.
Although the United States is not absolutely sure what kind of
help the
Chinese are providing, the suspected assistance could violate
international
accords aimed at stopping the spread of missiles and lead
Washington to
consider imposing economic sanctions on China, the officials
said.
Vice President Al Gore, responding Sunday to questions about the
suspected factory, declined to discuss details but suggested that
the
United States was aware that such a factory was being built not
far from
Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
"We're monitoring it very carefully and we have an active
ongoing
dialogue with the Chinese on this very point," he said on
the ABC News
program "This Week With David Brinkley." "And we
expect that they will
comply with the provisions of the laws and treaties
involved."
The suspicions about the missile factory were first reported in
Sunday's
issue of the Washington Post.
The missile in question is the Chinese M-11, which when equipped
with a
warhead has a range of 185 and 200 miles. India, Pakistan's
neighbor
and frequent antagonist, has developed a similar missile. The two
nations
have gone to war three times since Pakistan, an Islamic republic,
was
carved out of India in 1947. Their disputed border remains one of
the
world's most troubled frontiers, and their military
establishments are
locked into an arms race involving nuclear and conventional
weapons.
Pakistan is believed to be the only Islamic nation with
nuclear-weapons
technology, although it has not officially acknowledged having a
nuclear
arms program.
The treaty in question is the Missile Technology Control Regime,
a pact
signed by about 30 countries. That accord, which China agreed to
observe in 1991, restricts exports of technology to build
missiles capable
of carrying nuclear warheads at least 185 miles.
If China is indeed helping Pakistan build a missile factory --
which both
countries deny -- such assistance would once again belie China's
promises to adhere to the missile control regime.
The United States has twice imposed limited economic sanctions
against
China for sharing weapons technology with Pakistan, lifting the
sanctions
after China promised to stop the practice. A 1990 law calls on
the
administration to impose a two-year cutoff of most imports from
communist countries that violate the control regime, although the
sanctions
can be waived for national-security reasons. That law also calls
for a ban
on most U.S. export licenses for trade with those countries.
The military and intelligence establishments of China and
Pakistan have
worked together since at least the mid-1980s. They collaborated
in a
global smuggling network, coordinated by the CIA, which shipped
billions
of dollars of arms to Afghan guerrillas fighting off Soviet
troops, who
invaded and occupied Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989.
The Chinese sent anti-aircraft artillery, mortars and ammunition
to
Pakistan, which passed the weapons on to the neighboring Afghans.
In the late 1980s, U.S. intelligence agencies say, China agreed
to ship
Pakistan the makings of M-11 missiles, an agreement which has
apparently led to the suspected missile factory now under
construction.
In November 1991, China, prompted by the United States, agreed to
follow the provisions of the Missile Technology Control Regime.
But the next year, President George Bush, a former U.S. envoy to
China,
infuriated the Chinese by allowing General Dynamics to sell 150
F-16
fighter jets to Taiwan, which China considers a renegade
province. The
sale of the jets, in China's view, violated a 10-year-old
understanding in
which the United States pledged to reduce military assistance to
Taiwan
gradually.
The Chinese subsequently broke their word by shipping M-11
missile
technology to Pakistan, and broke it again by selling the
Pakistanis
specialized magnets that can be used to enrich uranium for
nuclear
weapons, according to United States intelligence and arms-control
officials.
Washington imposed limited sanctions on the Chinese in both
cases, and
then lifted them after the Chinese agreed not to sell technology
that can
violate the control regime. The construction of the suspected
missile
factory may constitute a third violation of the regime,
government officials
said Sunday.
If so, the Clinton administration will either have to impose new
diplomatic
pressure on Beijing or once again weigh the potential costs and
rewards
of cutting off imports from China, which sells the United States
about $30
billion in goods a year.
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