China supplied missile technology to Pak.: CIA

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 8. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has said that China had supplied missile and related technology to Libya, Pakistan and North Korea.

The semi-annual report of the CIA to Congress made the point that Russia and North Korea were major exporters of nuclear, chemical, biological weapons-related equipment and missile systems to rogue States and unstable regions of the world.

It also said that Russia was supplying nuclear reactors to China and India's naval propulsion systems and that India had discussed the prospect of leasing nuclear-powered attack submarines from it. On a different note, the CIA spoke of Libya building missiles with help from Yugoslavia, India, North Korea and China.

The part on China and Pakistan comes at a time when the Bush administration has slapped sanctions for violating American domestic laws on proliferation of missile technology. The sanctions, announced last week, were also in the context of Beijing going back on a November 2000 pledge not to assist nations in their nuclear and missile arsenals.

The CIA's report covered the period between July and December last year. ``During the reporting period, Chinese entities provided Pakistan with missile-related technical assistance. Pakistan has been moving towards domestic serial production of solid propellant (short-range missiles) with Chinese help.''

Further, the nodal intelligence agency said that there were indications that China continued to assist Pakistan in developing nuclear weapons in violation of a 1996 pledge to Washington against this. China, the CIA maintained, had also supplied advanced conventional arms to Pakistan, Iran and Sudan, among other nations.

Equally standard and routine have been the denials of Beijing and Islamabad, something that has not merited serious attention here. China, for instance, tried to pass off the impression that it could not be expected to have a tight leash on ``private'' entities involved in the dubious missile and technology trade; Pakistan tried to project an image of being unnecessarily sullied. Both do not cut much ice in the political and intelligence community.

The continued reporting of clandestine and dubious transactions from China to Pakistan on the nuclear and missile fronts has put Islamabad in a tough spot. The prospect of additional sanctions aside, the intelligence reports come at a time when the Bush administration is seriously looking at ways of coming to grips with the post-1998 Glenn Amendment sanctions as they related to Pakistan.

While Pakistani officials and diplomats have been hammering away at the concept of a ``non-differentiated'' approach vis-a-vis India, the administration is really in a dilemma. Broadly speaking, there is a feeling in the administration that while the President cannot go the whole hog and lift or waive sanctions against Pakistan given the democracy linkages, ``something'' ought to be done.

On the one hand, there is the realisation that further alienation of Pakistan would only push its regime further into Taliban-type extremism and fundamentalism, which would not be in the interests of the U.S. On the other hand, constant reports of dubious nuclear and missile transactions with China has not helped matters much.

UNI reports from New Delhi:

In its latest report on global demography trends, the CIA has said that Pakistan was on the verge of breakdown due to globalisation as the country ``seems to encompass the worst of everything''.

``Globalisation means there could be breakdowns in bigger, developed, urban places where the U.S. may not be able to intervene,'' the report published in Pakistan's The News said. In addition to contributing to political volatility in several already unstable regions and countries, youth bulges could provide large numbers of Afghan and Pakistani youth for terrorist activities.

The report said the immediate problem would involve a breakdown in a place where moral intervention was not possible but where there were greater strategic consequences.

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Section  : International
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