U.S., China Discuss Pledge on Arms

Talks between U.S. and China on Beijing’s agreement not to spread missile or nuclear weapons technology to other nations ended inconclusively Thursday, with American officials saying more work is needed to clarify the Chinese commitment.

A U.S. delegation led by acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Vann Van Diepen had sought to ensure that China would abide by a promise made in November not to help other countries develop ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

But the daylong discussions--the latest in a series of high-level contacts--ended with the American team unconvinced of Beijing’s pledge.

“We have not yet been fully satisfied in our discussions with them,” State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker said in Washington.

Additional work is necessary “to clarify China’s willingness to implement fully the terms of the November 2000 missile agreement, so that will continue to be a topic in our bilateral dialogue,” he said.

Washington is worried about reports that Chinese companies have continued to export sensitive missile technology to Pakistan in violation of the pledge. The Chinese government insists it has stuck to its promise.

The talks came less than a month after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell visited here and sought a renewed Chinese commitment to the agreement.

Two weeks ago, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) visited and also pressed China on the issue. Biden, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, later called on the Bush administration to impose sanctions on the Chinese companies accused of aiding Pakistan.

Neither the U.S. team nor China’s Foreign Ministry would comment on the substance of Thursday’s talks.

Before the session, Reeker said the meetings would not focus on the alleged missile assistance to Pakistan.

“These talks aren’t surrounding any specific allegation,” Reeker told reporters in Washington on Wednesday. “These are on the subject of missile nonproliferation, including the implementation of the November 2000 agreement.”

In addition to allegedly helping advance Pakistan’s weapons development, some Chinese companies are suspected of selling fiber-optic technology to Iraq that could enhance that nation’s air defenses.

Both Washington and Beijing are eager to find ways to stabilize bilateral relations, which have swung wildly during the last three years. Military ties in particular have been on shaky ground since the 1999 bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade--which the U.S. labeled an accident--during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s air war against Yugoslavia. They hit another low in April after a U.S. spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet off southern China.

President Bush is to visit Shanghai in two months for a regional economic summit, then travel to Beijing for a state visit--the first by a U.S. leader since President Clinton’s in 1998.