Reported Aid to Iran Missile Program Strains U.S.-China Ties

WASHINGTON — The Clinton Administration acknowledged Thursday that China may have exported missile-related technology to Iran recently, an action that could prove serious enough to trigger new U.S. sanctions against China.

“The question of Chinese cooperation with Iran in the missile area is of great concern,” State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns told a news briefing. “This is a matter that is under review and will remain . . . at the top of our agenda with the Chinese government.”

The reported Chinese help for Iran’s missile programs adds one more irritant to the already troubled relationship between Washington and Beijing.

Those ties have been strained by China’s unhappiness with the Clinton Administration’s decision to permit Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui to come to this country on a private visit earlier this month.

China’s exports also could have important implications for the Middle East.

Iran now has Scud-type missiles that it obtained from North Korea.

China’s modern, M-class missiles are more advanced and have more accurate guidance systems than the Scuds.

With Chinese technology, Iran eventually could develop more advanced and more capable missiles at the same time that, by U.S. accounts, it is pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

China dismissed reports of the technology transfers as “groundless.”

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Chen Jian asserted that “the Chinese government will live up to its promises and commitment” under international rules governing exports of missile technology.

The new information obtained by the Administration about China’s help for Iran, first made public by the weekly publication Defense News, was contained in recent U.S. intelligence reports.

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“Part of [the new information] is missiles and part of it is conventional arms. . . . It is true that people are looking closely at these shipments, including missile-related things. But it’s not at all clear whether or not they are sanctionable-type operations,” one Administration official said.

In the wake of Lee’s visit, authorities in Beijing canceled a series of high-level meetings with the United States, including talks about missile proliferation.