China said Friday, August 17, it could find no evidence Chinese companies were helping Iraq to upgrade its air defense systems in violation of United Nations sanctions. But foreign ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi refrained from issuing a wholehearted denial of new allegations made this week by the Wall Street Journal.
"The Chinese government has so far not discovered any trade activity between China and Iraq that runs against related resolutions of the UN Security Council," said Sun, quoted by the Xinhua news agency.
Sun said that China was firmly opposed to any violation of the UN sanctions on Iraq, imposed after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and would punish any company found breaking the rules. "If there is any case that runs against the Security Council's related resolutions, it will be seriously handled," he said.
The Journal report said Chinese telecommunications companies had helped Iraq build a fiber-optic communications station, which was bombed by US and British warplanes last week. The station had been rebuilt after it was bombed five months earlier by Allied jets. It had also initially been constructed with Chinese help.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in March that Beijing had assured him orders had been given to Chinese firms working on fiber optics in Iraq to "cease and desist". However in public Chinese officials repeatedly and angrily denied that any Chinese firms were involved in sanctions-busting work in Iraq.
Sanctions were first imposed on Iraq to force it to withdraw its troops from Kuwait but they were later adapted in a bid to force Baghdad to eliminate its pursuit of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
The new allegations come amid increasing concern in Washington over China's alleged proliferation of missile technology and its military help to states of concern such as Iraq, Pakistan and North Korea.
A US team led by the acting deputy assistant secretary of state for non-proliferation, Vann Van Diepen, arrives in Beijing Wednesday for talks with Chinese officials aimed at halting the spread of missile technology.
The talks were agreed when Powell was in Beijing last month and follow US reports that China has been selling missile parts to Pakistan in contravention of a November 2000 Sino-US non-proliferation accord. ― (AFP, Beijing)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
