No deal with China over NMD, says U.S.

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 3. The Bush administration, stung by criticism from academic and political communities, has said that its plans to update China on the missile defence system does not amount to condoning Beijing's weapons build-up and modernisation plans.

``This is part of the administration's outreach to China and to other nations such as Russia to discuss with them the reason why we are developing a missile defence system and how it is designed to protect us from rogue nations or accidental launches,'' said the White House Press Secretary, Mr. Ari Fleischer. The senior White House official rejected the contention that the administration had made a trade-off in return for China's acceptance of the anti-missile shield plan: that Washington would agree to a weapons build-up or accept renewed nuclear testing. The U.S. policy, Mr. Fleischer said, remained unchanged about discouraging China and others from testing and building nuclear arsenals.

Over the weekend, there were media reports on the deal that the Bush administration may be inclined to do with China to get its backing for the missile defence system. The New York Times quoted a senior administration official as saying that in a bid to overcome Beijing's objections, Washington was prepared to tell China that it had no objections for its military build-up. It is thought that the Republican administration is prepared to go to the extent of allowing China to resume nuclear testing for verification and modernisation purposes. The understanding here is that the U.S. too will discard the unilateral moratorium on testing at a future date.

But by the time the Sunday talk shows were over, the administration had launched a damage control exercise to minimise the impact of what the National Security Advisor, Dr. Condoleeza Rice or other ``administration officials'' may have said on Saturday. ``We have no plans to resume testing,'' Mr. Fleischer said. And Dr. Rice was quoted in The Washington Post as saying, ``We assume that the modernisation (Chinese) is underway. We are not going to acquiesce in it''. The statements of senior administration officials may heave been intended to gauge reaction and the response from conservatives and liberals was harsh. The Democrats, led by the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Joseph Biden, called the idea of abandoning the moratorium on nuclear testing ``absurd'' and Republicans too were highly sceptical of allowing China to build its arsenals.

``I intend to talk to White House officials about that when I get back after Labour Day, but I am very sceptical...I would not like to see them (China) become any more powerful in the nuclear line. I think we ought to formulate our policy in many different ways to try to avoid just that,'' the Republican Senator, Mr. Arlen Specter, said. The Republican administration wishes to correct the impression that in its effort to ``sell'' the missile defence plan to allies, friends and adversaries, it has not taken China into confidence. Now the administration line seems to be one of wanting to share ``information'' on the anti- missile plan, including the planned tests.

In some ways, the administration has expanded the parameters of the missile defence debate on Capitol Hill as lawmakers return from their summer recess. On the one hand, the anti-missile shield itself will come under renewed attack given the funding and financial constraints. On the other hand, conservatives themselves are asking if in the pursuit of an anti- missile shield, the overall costs are too high.

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Section  : International
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