China Ignores U.S. Sanctions as Missile Sales to Iran Thrive

WorldTribune.com:

China has dismissed U.S. sanctions and and apparently believes it can more than compensate for lost U.S. business by continuing to export missile components and technology to Iran.

U.S. officials said Beijing, despite 80 U.S. sanctions on Chinese companies, continues to allow exports critical for Iran's intermediate-range missile program. They said Chinese technology and components have bolstered Iran's new solid-fuel missile and rocket projects. READ MORE

From January 2001 through April 2005 the State Department has sanctioned foreign companies 115 times regarding violations of controlled export shipments, Middle East Newsline reported. 80 of the sanctions were imposed on Chinese companies, according to the new edition of East-Asia-Intel.com.

Officials said the main Chinese violators were the state-owned China North Industry Corp., or Norinco, and China Great Wall Industry Corp. Great Wall was said to focus on the production of missile components.

"Although Norinco may have actually lost some money due to sanctions," Gary Milhollin, a leading expert on proliferation, told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on March 10, "Norinco officials must have decided years ago that the profits they would receive from continuing to sell missile and other technology to Iran would more than compensate for any American business they lost due to sanctions."

The Chinese exports to Iran have been part of increasing strategic ties between the two countries, officials said. China, one of the largest importers of oil, has increased imports from Iran and Gulf Arab states.

"We don't believe they're taking adequate account of the risk that the item they're approving is actually going to end up in a program for weapons of mass destruction or missiles," a State Department official said.

Chinese state-owned companies have also been exporting components for Iranian and North Korean biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. Officials said the deliveries have continued despite export regulations published by the government in Beijing.

"They're threatened by the destabilization of the world economy if there's a CBW [chemical-biological weapons] war in the Middle East that disrupts the world's oil supply," the State Department official said. "It's in their interest to make sure that Chinese companies are part of the solution rather than part of the problem."

Over the last year, officials said, Beijing has halted several WMD shipments to Iran and North Korea. They said China has also abided by their commitments to employ dual-use advanced technology imported from the United States for legitimate uses. The dual-use exports have been controlled by the Commerce Department, permitted by China to verify end-users stipulated in license applications.

"They realize that if there's some question or suspicion about items that have gone to them being misused or diverted or the products of those items being misused or diverted, that ultimately will probably hurt them," another official said.

Officials said the most resistant to Commerce Department end-user verification has been Chinese companies affiliated with Beijing's military or security forces. They said China could be using technology gained from the United States and the West for weapons exported to the Middle East.

Still, officials assert that China has used U.S. technology to develop strategic missiles. They said Beijing would deploy the DF-31 and DF-31A mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles and the JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missile by 2015 as part of China's military buildup in the Straits of Taiwan.

"Strategic force modernization is a continuing priority, and China will likely field three new strategic missiles -- more mobile, survivable and capable -- within a decade," David Gordon, chairman of the National Intelligence Council, told a May 2 hearing of the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission. "Beijing has undertaken an impressive program of military modernization that is tilting the balance of power in the Taiwan Straits and improving China's capabilities to threaten U.S. forces in the region."

The State Department has sought to avoid harming U.S. trade with Beijing in which the United States exports billion a year. Of that figure, about million regards U.S. controlled exports to China.

"While some U.S. officials have grown more confident that the PRC is changing its proliferation policies, congressional and other critics charge that such confidence is misplaced," the Congressional Research Service said in a report in March 2005. "They point out that for years, reputable sources have reported China to be selling ballistic missiles and technology for weapons of mass destruction in the international market, primarily in the Middle East."

"The PRC has had close relationships with all three countries [Iran, Iraq and North Korea] in the past, including sales of military equipment that could threaten U.S. forces in the region and missiles that could enhance a nuclear weapons capability," the report entitled "China-U.S. Relations: Current Issues and Implications for U.S.Policy," said.