CONFIDENTIAL
DSR 11C
SECTION
POLITICAL AND POLITICO/ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS
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16. Whether or not Britein sells arms to China and what
kind of arms depends not only on the calculation of the
Binn
strategic considerations but also on our political and
moral obligations to friendly countries and the possible
repercussions of such sales on our interests both in them
and in other countries, including the Soviet Union.
A
17. The first consideration is COCOM, which was set up
to control the sale of equipment and technology which
might be of significant military benefit to the Soviet
Union and her Warsaw Pact allies in Europe and to China
cocom. in the Far East. If the above analysis is correct, the current)
restrictions on China are over-rigorous. China is
(erzen Taiwant unlikely to pose a military threat to her neighbours and
her chief adversary is also the West's chief adversary.
Nevertheless, China's neighbours, and particularly Taiwan,
may have a different assumption and the US still has major
perushin
defence commitments in the area. COCOM itself is of great
importance to the UK vis-à-vis the Soviet Union and it
would be short-sighted to take any action which would
undermine, let alone destroy, the system. Japanese
participation in COCOM is important and it would not be
possible to obtain Japanese agreement to the exclusion of
China from COCOM rules. The attitudes of the US and China'
neighbours are important in the consideration of possible
arms sales.
18. The American attitude in particular would be crucial.
The UK self-evidently has far more at stake in the US in
/political
CONFIDENTIAL
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