Still Another U.S.-China Problem

To the list of major issues inflaming U.S. relations with China--the piracy of American copyrights, Beijing’s sale of nuclear and missile technology to Pakistan, human rights violations--must now be added gun smuggling. Seven Americans and Chinese have been arrested in the San Francisco Bay Area in the culmination of an 18-month sting operation by Treasury agents. The agents arranged to buy 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles, which under U.S. law may not be imported. The firearms were smuggled into the country in March.

This does not appear to have been a freelance venture. The AK-47s were supplied by two state-controlled arms-exporting companies in Beijing. A congressional source said two of the men arrested on Wednesday were representatives of those companies. According to an affidavit unsealed Thursday, one of the suspects assured undercover U.S. customs officials three times before his arrest that the Chinese government knew of the smuggling.

But just what “government” means here is somewhat uncertain. It’s known that relatives of high Chinese officials, including the son-in-law of paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, have a hand in running the arms-exporting companies. Deputy Atty. Gen. Jamie Gorelick, when asked whether China’s government had sanctioned the smuggling, declined to answer. That lack of denial strongly indicates the answer is yes.

Nonetheless, the State Department is telling China that Washington regards the smuggling as a criminal and not a political matter. But Beijing’s habit is to profess to see linkage and political considerations in all points of contention in U.S.-China relations. It would be surprising if it made an exception in this case. It would be surprising, too, if Congress did not push for some political response in this matter; one target could be China’s most-favored-nation trade status, which is up for renewal next month.

Smuggling assault rifles into the United States implicitly touches on the security of ordinary Americans. That gives this matter an emotional and political resonance quite a bit different from the other issues that continue to vex U.S.-China relations.