CLINTON’S FLIM-FLAM ON CHINESE PROLIFERATION: EVEN THE WASHINGTON POST CAN’T CONCEAL ITS CONTEMPT

(Washington, D.C.): Last Friday, the Clinton
Administration made an announcement that was,
unfortunately, as predictable as it was outrageous. There
would be no U.S. sanctions imposed on Communist China for
its repeated sale of sensitive nuclear weapons-related
technologies to Pakistan. The reason, according to State
Department spokesman Nicholas Burns was that “The
Secretary of State has concluded that there is not a
sufficient basis to warrant a determination that
sanctionable activity occurred.”

Having determined — despite hard evidence to the
contrary — that the Chinese had not done anything
sanctionable, the Administration added insult to injury:
It declared that Secretary of State Warren Christopher
had extracted a promise from the Chinese government that
they would not engage in such activities again!

Even by the sorry standards of the
“agreements” that Mr. Christopher delights in
conjuring with one despotic government after another,
this one is a doozer. As a “News Analysis”
appearing in today’s Washington Post documents
with scarcely concealed derision, the Clinton
Administration is giving the “Emperor’s New
Clothes” treatment to Beijing’s latest, contemptuous
response to American non-proliferation initiatives.
Consider the following particulars revealed by the Post
(emphasis added throughout):

• A statement released by Beijing eight hours after
  the Clinton Administration announced purported
  Chinese promises to stop selling nuclear
  technology “made no specific reference to
  future sales of ring magnets, the equipment that
  had been at issue during four months of tortuous
  U.S.-Chinese negotiations. Also, Beijing’s
  statement made no specific pledge that sales of
  similar, nuclear-related gear to would-be nuclear
  proliferators would not recur.”
  What promises?
• Indeed, according to unnamed U.S. officials, the
  Chinese government repeatedly refused to make
  such pledges publicly. In order “to cover
  the defect, Washington devised an unusual
  diplomatic stratagem: U.S. officials
  would say what they thought China meant to
  say in public, and the absence of any public
  Chinese protest would be taken as Beijing’s
  assent.” The
  “silence-is-consent” gambit is simply a
  self-delusion when dealing with a government that
  won’t keep even the promises it explicitly
  makes.
• “Asked yesterday to explain the Chinese
  omission Friday of any reference to ring
  magnets…several officials said that Washington’s
  desire for clarity had to be sacrificed to avoid
  an awkward confrontation over economic sanctions.”
  This statement summarizes the Clinton approach to
  security policy in general: Do whatever is
  necessary — appeasement, kow-towing,
  turning-a-blind-eye, etc. — to avoid
  “awkward confrontations” with
  international rogues.
• “Several officials said that in a private,
  one-on-one meeting with [Mr. Christopher] on
  April 19 in The Hague, Chinese Foreign Minister
  Qian had confirmed that Beijing knew ring magnets
  were not to be exported in the future. But
  they would not say how he confirmed it — whether
  by a wink, a smile or by spoken words.”
  The smart money says it was a smile.
• China has also reportedly agreed to make a public
  pledge not to “provide assistance” to
  nuclear facilities outside of nuclear inspection
  regimes, but there is no agreement on what
  exactly is meant by “assistance.”
  According to one U.S. official, “We would
  have preferred greater specificity and public
  clarity and all of that….I cannot
  promise you that their definition of assistance
  is the same as ours, but it is clearly more
  extensive [than it has been in the past], and it
  clearly includes ring magnets.” The
  operative word is “clearly.”
• “The official went on to say that clearing
  up the lingering uncertainties will be a major
  objective of the additional talks that China has
  pledged to hold with the United States on
  proliferation matters….But China made
  no mention of the talks in its own statement, and
  no timetable has been set.”
  How much more clear could the Chinese be?

The Bottom Line

The Washington Post rounded out its
deprecating treatment of Secretary Christopher’s latest
dubious diplomatic achievement with a quote from, of all
things, “an aide to a Democratic senator” who
it reports believes “[this understanding] is just
another sign that Washington has learned little from a
decade of empty or ambiguous promises by Beijing to
observe international proliferation constraints.” He
added: “We have been indulging bad Chinese
nuclear behavior for more than 15 years…and we are
still doing it.”

Critical congressional oversight of the Clinton
Administration’s abominable management of the Chinese
portfolio is long overdue. The only sure result of its
most recent misfeasance will be the perpetuation — if
not intensification — of Beijing’s transfer of nuclear
weapons- and missile-related technology to Pakistan, Iran
and other dangerous rogue states. The dangers inherent in
this practice for U.S. security and that of other
friendly nations should be a particular focus for debate
when the Clinton proposal to extend China’s most favored
nation status is considered in the next few weeks.

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