China Issues Missile Export Controls
The long-awaited missile export controls that Beijing committed
to publishing almost two years ago were released by China’s
official Xinhua News Agency on August 25.
Following months of nonproliferation talks with the United States,
China had agreed on November 21, 2000, not to help states develop
“ballistic missiles that can be used to deliver nuclear weapons.”
It defined such missiles as those capable of carrying a 500-kilogram
payload at least 300 kilometers, guidelines that mirror those in
the Missile Technology Control Regime, of which China is not a member.
To make its pledge more concrete, China said it would issue “at
an early date” a “comprehensive” list of missile-related
and dual-use items whose export would require a government license.
As of August, however, China had still not issued the export control
list despite repeated requests from Washington to do so. In fact,
the United States maintained that China was continuing to export
missile components and technology in direct violation of the November
2000 agreement. In a July 2002 report to Congress, the U.S.-China
Security Review Commission cited China as “a leading international
source of missile-related technologies” and warned of its proliferation
activities with “terrorist-sponsoring and other states…particularly
in the Middle East and Asia.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan, who in July dismissed
U.S. reports on the threat of Chinese missile and weapons of mass
destruction proliferation as groundless, said August 25 that China
has always been committed to responsible export control and “will
continue to take an active part in the international cooperation
in nonproliferation.”
The controls came in the form of a 24-article regulation requiring
entities to obtain a government license before exporting ballistic
and cruise missiles, rockets, and unmanned air vehicles, and related
delivery systems and technologies that are listed on a “control
list,” which Beijing also released. In addition, the receiving
party must guarantee that the transferred items will not be used
in any manner other than that declared to the Chinese government.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher called the new controls
a “potentially important step” but added that “the
real measure of China’s control over missile-related exports
will be the effectiveness with which controls like these are enforced
and a real reduction in problematic exports by Chinese entities.”
The Xinhua News Agency reported that Premier Zhu Rongji signed
the regulations into effect August 22, three days before the arrival
of Richard Armitage, U.S. deputy secretary of state, in Beijing.
Armitage’s discussions with top Chinese officials included
preparations for President Jiang Zemin’s visit to the United
States in October to meet with President Bush.
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