-Caveat Lector- -- Chinese official looks upon U.S. as 'rogue' state Copyright © 1999 Nando Media Copyright © 1999 Christian Science Monitor Service By KEVIN PLATT (October 28, 1999 12:56 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Like the United States, China says it is witnessing the potential emergence of a "rogue" state that could throw the world out of balance early in the next century. Washington warns that unpredictable regimes in nations such as North Korea and Iraq could one day develop long-range missiles and a handful of atomic bombs to engage in nuclear blackmail or worse. But China's top arms control negotiator, Sha Zukang, says a bigger threat to global stability is already armed to the teeth with hydrogen bombs and sophisticated rockets that can send a nuclear payload to any point on the planet. That country, Sha says, is the United States. "Because the U.S. believes it's the only superpower in the world, it can act at will, without regard for international law and international norms," he says. Washington seems to be developing a stubbornness against abiding by weapons' control pacts and a greater penchant to use armed force against its real or perceived enemies, Sha complains. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union has not ushered in an era of global peace, he says. Rather, it is creating a United States that is drunk with its own power and technological prowess, adds Sha, whose official title is director-general of the Arms Control and Disarmament Department of the Chinese foreign ministry. Sha is not one of the Communist Party hardliners here who regularly lashes out at the United States. Rather, he is affable, cosmopolitan, and open, and seems more disillusioned than angry with the United States. Sha cites as one example of aggressiveness the U.S. bombing of a medical plant in Sudan that American intelligence initially accused of producing chemical weapons. The 1998 missile attack was not approved by any global organization, and the United States has never offered the world community solid proof that the plant made anything but medicine. "The U.S. bombing of Sudan was an act of state terrorism," Sha says. There is a growing list, he adds, of similar acts of aggression against sovereign states in violation of the U.N. Charter or other global laws. Not only did the United States and NATO launch a massive attack on Yugoslavia without obtaining the U.N.'s approval, but the coalition delivered, with pinpoint precision, five missiles into Beijing's embassy in Belgrade. That bombing "was an obvious violation of the Vienna Convention," he says. While Beijing appreciates Washington's apologies and compensation for victims of the attack, the United States government "still has to identify the culprits (behind the bombing) and bring them to justice." A U.S. official formerly based in Beijing agrees. "So far the (U.S.) government has said institutional mistakes led to the bombing of the Chinese Embassy," says the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But specific individuals were responsible for mistakenly targeting the embassy, and heads should roll as a result of those fatal mistakes." Sha suggests the growing disregard of the United States for international weapons conventions and rules of war is, in turn, making China more circumspect about joining arms control regimes. "We might have already ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty if not for the bombing of our embassy in Yugoslavia," he says. That treaty, which aims to ban all nuclear weapons testing, was rejected by the U.S. Senate even though "the United States was the first country to promote and to sign the treaty," Sha says. Sha says he is puzzled by the vote not only because Washington was one of the pact's top proponents, but also because it would have allowed the United States to lock in its nuclear superiority and prevent any wannabes from crashing into the nuclear club. "The U.S. has the biggest and most sophisticated nuclear arsenal in the world," and could have frozen that advantage perpetually by signing the treaty, he says. Instead, the Senate's vote against ratification is alienating the United States from the rest of the world, Sha says. "Not a single country in the world has given its support for the U.S. Senate's rejection of the treaty." China's defense ministry is now reviewing the test ban pact, and hints that Beijing could ratify it early next year, during a spring meeting of the national legislature. "I negotiated (the treaty) - it's my baby," says Sha, who adds that he wants to see it ratified as soon as possible. Washington's abandonment of the nuclear treaty it pushed so hard to help produce "was wrong politically and morally, but at least it did not violate any international agreements," Sha says. More alarming, he says, is a U.S. plan to build a national anti-missile shield that would violate the 1972 Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty. Russia, which also signed the ABM pact, and China last week introduced a resolution in the United Nations warning the United States not to break the treaty. Defense experts in Russia, the United States, and China agree that if the Pentagon starts building the missile defense system, a "Star Wars"-like project designed to shoot down incoming rockets, countries that fear a nuclear first strike from the United States could speed up their own missile production as a countermeasure. Sha says "the ABM is a cornerstone of maintaining global strategic stability," and warns that if Washington violates the pact after refusing to approve the nuclear test ban, the twin actions "could trigger a worldwide chain reaction." "This has the possibility to destroy all the progress we have made in nuclear nonproliferation ... in the post-Cold War era," Sha says. He says that the U.S. moves "may touch off an arms race in all fields, including the nuclear and missile fields." Sha adds that setting up a missile defense in violation of the ABM treaty could also, for the first time in human history, "set off an arms race in outer space." (c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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