Unilateral Armament

ASIA’s most dangerous arms race is the race to arm China. In fact, as the Clinton Administration looks the other way, the world is witnessing perhaps the most geostrategically dangerous transfer of power since Germany and other states helped create the early Soviet Union’s military-technical base. The Administration’s lack of concern might be acceptable if the country in question were not firing nuclear-capable missiles to scare its neighbors, not enforcing claims to territory hundreds of miles from its shores, and not selling both nuclear and missile technologies to rogue states. China, however, is doing all these things and is none too subtle about its intention of eventually displacing American power in Asia. The day when China will be able to do so is drawing nearer as its People’s Liberation Army gains access to cutting-edge foreign military technology.

Since the early 1990s, the main runners in the race to arm China have been Russia and Israel. The Bush Administration’s and the European Union’s 1989 post-Tiananmen Square sanctions barred arms manufacturers in the United States and Western Europe from selling weapons to China, which they had been doing at a modest scale for much of the 1980s, in part to help contain the Soviet Bear. And so, after 1989, China turned, cash in hand, to newly desperate Russia. Israel, meanwhile, never curtailed its military relationship with China and now is Russia’s closest competitor for the People’s Liberation Army market. And having tired of losing lucrative PLA contracts, the Europeans are re-entering this market.

RF

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Richard D. Fisher Jr.

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ASIA’s most dangerous arms race is the race to arm China. In fact, as the Clinton Administration looks the other way, the world is witnessing perhaps the most geostrategically dangerous transfer of power since Germany and other states helped create the early Soviet Union’s military-technical base. The Administration’s lack of concern might be acceptable if the country in question were not firing nuclear-capable missiles to scare its neighbors, not enforcing claims to territory hundreds of miles from its shores, and not selling both nuclear and missile technologies to rogue states. China, however, is doing all these things and is none too subtle about its intention of eventually displacing American power in Asia. The day when China will be able to do so is drawing nearer as its People’s Liberation Army gains access to cutting-edge foreign military technology.

Since the early 1990s, the main runners in the race to arm China have been Russia and Israel. The Bush Administration’s and the European Union’s 1989 post-Tiananmen Square sanctions barred arms manufacturers in the United States and Western Europe from selling weapons to China, which they had been doing at a modest scale for much of the 1980s, in part to help contain the Soviet Bear. And so, after 1989, China turned, cash in hand, to newly desperate Russia. Israel, meanwhile, never curtailed its military relationship with China and now is Russia’s closest competitor for the People’s Liberation Army market. And having tired of losing lucrative PLA contracts, the Europeans are re-entering this market.