Asien — China’s National Defense in 2008

Non-Pro­lif­er­a­tion
Chi­na firm­ly oppos­es the pro­lif­er­a­tion of weapons of mass destruc­tion (WMD) and their means of deliv­ery, and active­ly takes part in inter­na­tion­al non-pro­lif­er­a­tion efforts. Chi­na holds that an inte­grat­ed approach should be adopt­ed to address both the symp­toms and root caus­es of pro­lif­er­a­tion. The inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty should devote itself to build­ing a glob­al and region­al secu­ri­ty envi­ron­ment fea­tur­ing sta­bil­i­ty, coop­er­a­tion and mutu­al trust, and earnest­ly main­tain­ing and strength­en­ing the author­i­ty and effec­tive­ness of the inter­na­tion­al non-pro­lif­er­a­tion regime. In this regard, dou­ble stan­dards must be aban­doned. All states should resort to dia­logue and nego­ti­a­tion to resolve dif­fer­ences in the field of non-pro­lif­er­a­tion. The rela­tions between non-pro­lif­er­a­tion and the peace­ful use of sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy should be prop­er­ly addressed, with the aim of pre­serv­ing the right of peace­ful use of each state while effec­tive­ly pre­vent­ing WMD proliferation. 

Chi­na has joined all inter­na­tion­al treaties and inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions in the field of non-pro­lif­er­a­tion. It attach­es great impor­tance to the role of the Treaty on the Non-pro­lif­er­a­tion of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Bio­log­i­cal Weapons Con­ven­tion (BWC) and the Chem­i­cal Weapons Con­ven­tion (CWC) in pre­vent­ing the pro­lif­er­a­tion of WMD. Chi­na sup­ports the role played by the UN in the field of non-pro­lif­er­a­tion, and has con­sci­en­tious­ly imple­ment­ed the rel­e­vant res­o­lu­tions of the UN Secu­ri­ty Council. 

Chi­na is ded­i­cat­ed to the denu­cleariza­tion of the Kore­an Penin­su­la, and firm­ly pro­motes the Six-Par­ty Talks process on that issue. Chi­na facil­i­tat­ed the adop­tion of “Ini­tial Actions for the Imple­men­ta­tion of the Joint State­ment” and the “Sec­ond-Phase Actions for the Imple­men­ta­tion of the Joint State­ment” respec­tive­ly in Feb­ru­ary and Octo­ber 2007. 

Chi­na main­tains that the Iran­ian nuclear issue should be resolved peace­ful­ly by polit­i­cal and diplo­mat­ic means. Chi­na has par­tic­i­pat­ed in the meet­ings of for­eign min­is­ters or polit­i­cal direc­tors of the min­istries of for­eign affairs, and host­ed a meet­ing of polit­i­cal direc­tors of the min­istries of for­eign affairs of those six coun­tries in Shang­hai in April 2008. Chi­na has also active­ly tak­en part in the delib­er­a­tion on the Iran­ian nuclear issue at the Inter­na­tion­al Atom­ic Ener­gy Agency (IAEA) and the UN Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil, play­ing a con­struc­tive role. 

Chi­na attach­es great impor­tance to non-pro­lif­er­a­tion export con­trol, and has estab­lished a com­pre­hen­sive legal sys­tem for export con­trol of nuclear, bio­log­i­cal, chem­i­cal and mis­sile and relat­ed dual-use items and tech­nolo­gies. Chi­na has also con­stant­ly updat­ed these laws and reg­u­la­tions in light of its inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions and the need for export con­trol. Chi­na amend­ed the Reg­u­la­tions of the PRC on the Con­trol of Nuclear Exports in Novem­ber 2006, the Reg­u­la­tions of the PRC on the Con­trol of Dual-Use Nuclear Items and Relat­ed Tech­nolo­gies Exports in Jan­u­ary 2007 and its Con­trol List in July of the same year. Chi­na has spared no effort in strength­en­ing law enforce­ment in the field of non-pro­lif­er­a­tion export control. 

Chi­na val­ues and active­ly car­ries out inter­na­tion­al exchanges and coop­er­a­tion in the field of non-pro­lif­er­a­tion and export con­trol. Chi­na has held reg­u­lar arms con­trol and non-pro­lif­er­a­tion con­sul­ta­tions with a dozen coun­tries and the EU, and non-pro­lif­er­a­tion dia­logues with NATO. Chi­na also main­tains dia­logues and exchanges with multi­na­tion­al export con­trol regimes such as the Aus­tralia Group and the Wasse­naar Arrangement. 

Chi­na sup­ports the objec­tives and prin­ci­ples of the Glob­al Ini­tia­tive to Com­bat Nuclear Ter­ror­ism. As one of the orig­i­nal part­ners of the Ini­tia­tive, Chi­na has tak­en part in all meet­ings of the part­ners. In Decem­ber 2007 Chi­na and the Unit­ed States joint­ly held a work­shop in Bei­jing on radi­a­tion emer­gency response with­in the frame­work of the Initiative. 

Pre­ven­tion of the Intro­duc­tion of Weapons and an Arms Race in Out­er Space
The Chi­nese gov­ern­ment has all along advo­cat­ed the peace­ful use of out­er space, and opposed the intro­duc­tion of weapons and an arms race in out­er space. The exist­ing inter­na­tion­al legal instru­ments con­cern­ing out­er space are not suf­fi­cient to effec­tive­ly pre­vent the spread of weapons to out­er space. The inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty should nego­ti­ate and con­clude a new inter­na­tion­al legal instru­ment to close the loop­holes in the exist­ing legal sys­tem con­cern­ing out­er space. 

In Feb­ru­ary 2008 Chi­na and Rus­sia joint­ly sub­mit­ted to the CD a draft Treaty on the Pre­ven­tion of the Place­ment of Weapons in Out­er Space and the Threat or Use of Force against Out­er Space Objects. Chi­na hopes that the CD will start sub­stan­tial dis­cus­sions on the draft as soon as pos­si­ble, and nego­ti­ate and con­clude the Treaty at an ear­ly date. 

Con­ven­tion­al Arms Con­trol
Chi­na has earnest­ly ful­filled its oblig­a­tions under the Con­ven­tion on Cer­tain Con­ven­tion­al Weapons (CCW) and its Pro­to­cols. It has tak­en con­crete mea­sures to ensure that its anti-per­son­nel land­mines in ser­vice meet the rel­e­vant tech­ni­cal require­ments of the Amend­ed Pro­to­col on Land­mines. Chi­na active­ly par­tic­i­pates in the work of the Group of Gov­ern­men­tal Experts (GGE) on Clus­ter Muni­tions. Chi­na is also con­tin­u­ing its prepa­ra­tions for rat­i­fy­ing the Pro­to­col on Explo­sive Rem­nants of War. Chi­na has con­tin­u­ous­ly tak­en an active part in inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an de-min­ing assis­tance. In the past two years, it has held de-min­ing train­ing cours­es for Ango­la, Mozam­bique, Chad, Burun­di, Guinea-Bis­sau, and both north­ern and south­ern Sudan. Chi­na has also donat­ed de-min­ing equip­ment to the above-men­tioned coun­tries and Egypt, and pro­vid­ed Peru, Ecuador and Ethiopia with mine erad­i­ca­tion funds. 

Chi­na has active­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in the inter­na­tion­al efforts to com­bat the illic­it trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW). It has con­sci­en­tious­ly imple­ment­ed the UN Pro­gram of Action (PoA) on SALW and the Inter­na­tion­al Instru­ment on Iden­ti­fy­ing and Trac­ing Illic­it SALW. Chi­na has issued and imple­ment­ed new detailed rules on SALW mark­ings, and has tak­en part in the work of the UN GGE on an “Arms Trade Treaty.” 

Trans­paren­cy in Mil­i­tary Expen­di­tures and Reg­is­tra­tion of Trans­fer of Con­ven­tion­al Arms
Chi­na attach­es great impor­tance to mil­i­tary trans­paren­cy, and makes unremit­ting efforts to enhance mil­i­tary trans­paren­cy and pro­mote mutu­al trust with oth­er coun­tries in the mil­i­tary sphere. In 2007 Chi­na joined the UN Stan­dard­ized Instru­ment for Report­ing Mil­i­tary Expen­di­tures, and reports annu­al­ly to the UN the basic data of its mil­i­tary expen­di­tures for the lat­est fis­cal year. 

Chi­na has made impor­tant con­tri­bu­tions to the estab­lish­ment and devel­op­ment of the UN Reg­is­ter of Con­ven­tion­al Arms. After the Reg­is­ter was estab­lished, Chi­na pro­vid­ed the Reg­is­ter with annu­al data on imports and exports of con­ven­tion­al arms in the sev­en cat­e­gories cov­ered by the Reg­is­ter. How­ev­er, since 1996 a par­tic­u­lar coun­try has pro­vid­ed data on its arms sales to Tai­wan to the Reg­is­ter, which con­tra­dicts the spir­it of the rel­e­vant Res­o­lu­tions of the UN Gen­er­al Assem­bly as well as the objec­tives and prin­ci­ples of the Reg­is­ter. Chi­na was impelled to sus­pend its sub­mis­sion of data to the Reg­is­ter. Since the coun­try con­cerned has stopped the above-men­tioned act, Chi­na has resumed, since 2007, sub­mit­ting data annu­al­ly to the Reg­is­ter on imports and exports of con­ven­tion­al arms in the sev­en categories. 

Source:
Infor­ma­tion Office of the State Coun­cil of the People’s Repub­lic of China