17 Senators Write Baker on China’s Arms Sales : Policy: Mitchell has warned of Mideast instability if Iran gets missiles and technology from Beijing.

A bipartisan group of 17 U.S. senators has sent an unusual classified letter to Secretary of State James A. Baker III complaining about recent arms sales by China to countries such as Iran, according to U.S. and congressional sources.

The letter, sent a week ago, was signed by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) and by leading Democratic and Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations, Armed Services and Intelligence committees.

Without mentioning the classified letter, Mitchell gave a speech in Congress last week in which he urged other senators “to seek a classified briefing from the Intelligence Committee about the extent and scope of Chinese arms shipments and their destinations. . . . It is not a matter to be debated in open session, but it is a matter that has serious implications for our security and that of the world.”

The letter appeared to be an attempt to deter the Bush Administration from completing a deal made by Baker during a trip to Beijing last November. Under that proposed deal, China said it would abide by an international agreement limiting missile technology sales if Washington would lift some sanctions on the sale of high-technology equipment to China.

Administration officials argue that this deal would accomplish the important objective of limiting Chinese missile sales. Critics of the U.S. policy say that China has failed to live up to previous promises about weapons proliferation and that its sales in recent months seem to be serious enough to justify a continuation of the sanctions.

It is not clear exactly what recent arms sales by China aroused the senators’ ire. In his speech, Mitchell cited testimony by CIA Director Robert M. Gates in Congress last month that Iran has moved toward rearmament by purchasing battlefield missiles, cruise missiles and nuclear technology from China.

“It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to predict potential instability in the Middle East if the rearmament process in Iran moves toward a nuclear capability,” Mitchell said.

One source familiar with the letter said recent Chinese sales involve both conventional and unconventional weapons, the transfer of technology and training for other nations’ scientists. He added that some of the sales are in early or preliminary stages.

Among other Senate leaders signing the letter were Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee; Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee; Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska), the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, and Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Saturday that he was not aware of the letter, which was reportedly delivered Jan. 31 to Undersecretary of State Arnold Kanter.

One Administration source aware of the letter said he could not discuss it because it is “code-word classified,” meaning that access is severely restricted. “Clearly, people up there (in Congress) are concerned, as we are,” the Administration official said of the recent Chinese arms sales.

China is known to have complained that the United States is demanding too much in the way of restrictions on its arms sales by insisting on a halt not only to sales of major weapons systems such as its newly developed M-9 and M-11 missiles, but also to sales of technology, training and materials.

Chinese officials have told some Americans that in making a distinction between the sale of weapons and the sale of technology, all they are doing is following a U.S. precedent. When Washington and Beijing made a deal in 1982 limiting American arms sales to Taiwan, the Ronald Reagan Administration blunted the impact of the agreement by providing Taiwan with the technology to make its own weapons.

Another Administration official said Chinese officials “want to maintain their working relations with countries in the (Persian) Gulf and the Mideast, which they see as important to their security. They do want to maintain relations in Iran, Syria, Libya and Algeria.” But the official said China appears to be going along with U.S. requests to halt its sales of ballistic missiles.

When Baker visited Beijing last November, Chinese officials told him they would abide by the Missile Technology Control Regime, a 1987 agreement aimed at limiting the spread of ballistic missiles, if the United States agreed to lift sanctions imposed last spring on U.S. sales to China of satellite parts and high-speed computers.

A few weeks after Baker returned, the Administration said it would go along with the proposed deal and lift the sanctions as soon as China put into writing its promise to abide by the MTCR. China balked, and since then U.S. and Chinese officials have been trying to work out exactly what China will promise in writing about curbing its arms sales.