China always prundent in arms trade: FM spokeswoman
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-06-14 06:22
China always employs a prudent and responsible attitude towards arms exports
and the Amnesty International's slams on China's arms trade is irresponsible and
groundless, said Jiang Yu, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman here on Tuesday.
Jiang noted that China adheres to three principles when selling armaments: it
should help enhance the self-defense capability of import countries, should not
impair regional and global peace, security and stability, and should not be used
to interfere with the internal affairs of countries.
The human rights group released a report on Sunday, accusing China of
enabling regional conflict and human right violations by exporting a large
quantity of weaponry to Sudan, Nepal, Myanmar and the Great Lakes countries of
Africa.
"China always abides by related international conventions and imposes rigid
self-control in terms of arms exports and transfer of military technologies,"
Jiang said.
With particular concern over exports of small weapons and conventional
weapons, China promulgated the Law on Control of Guns in July 1996, issued
regulations on the Administration of Arms Export in October 1997, and started
amending the regulations from October 2002.
According to the regulations, only enterprises granted licenses are allowed
to be engaged in the arms trade, and their export items and contracts must go
through checkup by related official departments. Weapon producers should offer
valid certificates from import countries, including those of end users.
China has also set up a system to clarify end users of its exported arms, so
as to prevent weapons entering political or regionally sensitive and unstable
areas, Jiang said.
Statistics from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute show
that from 2000 to 2004, that exports by the United States was estimated at 25.9
billion U.S. dollars. Weaponry exported by China in this period was valued at
1.4 billion U.S. dollars, only 5 percent of that of the United States, the
statistics show.
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