Chinese take-out market.(Between The Lines)

ITEM: The Washington Post for February 17 reported: "A senior U.S. arms control official said ... that, despite past sales of nuclear-related technology, the Chinese government now seems committed to cooperating with the United States to prevent nuclear proliferation in North Korea and elsewhere."

BETWEEN THE LINES: The Bush administration is correct in acknowledging that China has engaged in nuclear weapons proliferation. But the administration is wrong in claiming that that is in the past and that the Communist regime "now seems committed" to preventing nuclear proliferation.

Beijing has lied before about its nuclear proliferation activities, and it is lying now. Consider: In September 1997, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing claimed that China "does not advocate, encourage, or engage in nuclear proliferation, nor does it assist other countries in developing nuclear weapons." In October of that year, another spokesman reemphasized: "China has never transferred nuclear weapons or relevant technology to other countries.... China has never done it in the past, we do not do it now, nor will we do it in the future." Yet according to the CIA, China, in the second half of 1996, "was the single most important supplier of equipment and technology for weapons of mass destruction" worldwide. An agency report said that between July and December of 1996 China had become Pakistan's "primary source of nuclear-related equipment and technology...."

That has hardly changed. The same week the administration eyewash quoted above appeared, the Washington Post also reported that Libya's nuclear arms designs--recently examined by investigators--were traced to China, through Pakistan; some documents were even written in Chinese text. In mid-February, Reuters quoted a U.S. official ...