[lit-ideas] wild wild east... from rand
- From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 15:27:59 -0400
News Release
FOR RELEASE
Monday
September 26, 2005
RAND STUDY SAYS CHINA FAILS TO ADEQUATELY CONTROL WMD EXPORTS
China continues to lack the resources to fully and adequately
implement its numerous laws and regulations designed to control
exports of sensitive goods and technologies that could be used to
help create chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons,
according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.
While China has made much progress, it needs to do more to enforce
its own controls on exports that could help other nations or
organizations develop weapons of mass destruction, the report says.
The controls were adopted gradually over the last several years as
Chinese leaders recognized the importance of WMD nonproliferation to
global security.
“In the past five years, China has erected a structure that has a
strong legal basis to control exports of goods that can be used for
making weapons of mass destruction, but it hasn't devoted the
necessary financial or political resources to make these controls
effective,” said Evan Medeiros, the RAND researcher who conducted
the study. “This is a persistent and glaring weakness.”
The study says China should do more to strengthen its
anti-proliferation efforts if it wants to show itself to be a
“responsible major power” that is engaged in a “peaceful rise.”
The Chinese government has made public only two cases of export
control violations where penalties were assessed, the report says.
As a result, the study says there is minimal incentive for Chinese
companies to comply with the laws controlling WMD exports and to
eventually police themselves.
The report by the RAND National Security Research Division is titled
“Chasing the Dragon: Assessing China's System of Export Controls for
WMD-related Goods and Technologies.” The division undertakes
research on U.S. national security issues for the Department of
Defense and the intelligence community.
The study also says:
* Foreign agents and enterprises operating in China have
already taken advantage of China's weak regulatory environment to
illicitly procure controlled items for their national WMD-related
development programs.
* As a result of China's membership in the World Trade
Organization, foreign involvement in China's domestic nuclear,
aerospace and chemical industries will grow and could become a
matter of concern for China's export control system.
* China's current anti-proliferation mechanisms are largely
reactive and based primarily on reports and tips from Western
intelligence officials about pending exports of controlled goods and
technologies.
* Chinese Ministry of Commerce officials appear to be unwilling
to pursue investigations of alleged wrongdoing against large and
influential Chinese state-owned enterprises with strong political
connections.
http://www.rand.org/news/press.05/09.26b.html
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