The Trouble with Chinese Arms Sales
Usually I'm howling about repeated efforts by some EUrocrats (like *cough* the French *cough* ) to lift the arms embargo against China. Do EUrocrats really think that selling arms to China is a risk-free enterprise?
Here is another side to the troublesome world of weapons and Beijing. What does China do now with the arms that it already has? According to a recent damning report by the human rights organization Amnesty International, Chinese arms exports are creating havoc around the world:
BEIJING, China (AP) -- China's sales of military vehicles and weapons to Sudan, Nepal and Myanmar have aggravated conflicts and abetted violence and repressive rule in those countries, Amnesty International said in a report Monday. The report by the London-based human rights group sheds light on an area of Chinese foreign policy that its government does not disclose: assistance to regimes embroiled in internal conflicts and often shunned by the West. The group said China had shipped hundreds of military trucks to Sudan and Myanmar's military, and rifles and grenades to Nepal's security forces. "China has used the phrase 'cautious and responsible' to describe its arms export licensing, however its record of trading arms in conflict-ridden countries like Sudan and Myanmar show their actions are anything but," Colby Goodman of Amnesty International's arms control campaign said in a statement. . . . China rarely confirms sales of weapons and military equipment abroad, a secrecy that is compounding U.S. concerns about how it is using its rapidly rising economic and diplomatic power abroad. |
A bit more here, and you can read the Amnesty report for yourself right here on how Chinese arms sales are fomenting strife, conflict, and repression. Now sometimes I think Amnesty International moans and wails too theatrically and demonizes people it doesn't like, but this time on Chinese arms sales, I think it is more or less (if you will pardon the phrase) on target.