The
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He said that there was no conclusive evidence of any weapon sales by China which breached either the NPT or
the MTCR guidelines. There was a debatable case on the supply of M11 to Pakistan. He had spent some time discussing this in Peking without any results. When I asked him about newspaper reports of arms sales, and
about some of the accusations made by members of the
Senate and House Intelligence Committees, he was
extremely dismissive: he said these people were mostly translating into established fact what China might potentially do and were regrettably aided in this by the US Defence Department (addressees please protect for obvious reasons). He said that US leverage independent of MFN was very considerable in the weapons field.
If there was any clear evidence of a
breach of the NPT or the MTCR guidelines the
Administration was required by law to suspend all sales to China in the space, avionics and electronics
fields. Electronics sales would cover the civilian as
well as the military field. Conclusion: MFN need not
be used as a lever on weapons,
These
He said that US leverage on human rights should also not be under-estimated. China would like the US to do many things which they had not done since 1989. included lifting the bans on the US Trade Promotion Programme, the US Private Investment Programme, approval of lending by the international financial institutions and ultimately US police and military sales, Senator Baucus' proposal for a bilateral human rights commission was also an idea to be pressed. Conclusion: here too MFN was not the only way forward
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