Around the World

China leery of U.S. missile defense plan

Sha Zukang, the Foreign Ministry's arms control director, also lambasted the Senate for its failure to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty last month, arguing that such an act could make countries like China reluctant to enter into arms control agree ments with the United States.

"Because I'm a negotiator I ask myself, 'What should I do?' " Sha said in a rare, wide-ranging interview. "Should we follow the same practice? We know the United States is a superpower, but that does not give you super rights."

Sha's statements reflect China's deep unease with current American strategic thinking, specifically the push to amend or even abrogate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Underlying Sha's comments is a perception, shared by some European officials, th at Washington is capitalizing on its status as the world's most powerful country to lock in a strategic advantage that would make it immune to intimidation.

The U.S. plan to create a shield against missiles would affect China specifically because it would trump Beijing's single strategic ace. China's armed forces are still decades behind the American military. Its missiles, however, are top-notch and are the part of its arsenal that give it any hope of becoming a world, or even regional, military power. "They are missile savants," said one Western military expert.

But creating an American national missile defense system would deny China the ability to threaten the United States with its nuclear warheads. That would severely skew the Asian security equation and result in a China that feels trapped and powerless to p ursue its interests, non-American Western diplomats say.

"Any amendment, or abolishing of the treaty, will lead to disastrous consequences," Sha warned. "This will bring a halt to nuclear disarmament now between the Russians and Americans, and in the future will halt multilateral disarmament as well."

Russia has already protested the American plan to modify the ABM treaty. On Nov. 3, Russia announced that it had tested a short-range interceptor rocket for the Moscow anti-ballistic missile system in what appeared to be a blunt warning about its own plan s for an expanded ABM system. Western diplomats predict that an enhanced American missile shield will result in even closer security ties between Moscow and Beijing. Russia already sells China about $1 billion of weapons a year.

Mexico prepared to fight drug trafckers

The assessment, in a report handed to members of the Mexican Senate Tuesday, reflected growing Mexican frustration over political strings attached to U.S. anti-drug assistance.

In particular, Green's report was prompted by Mexico's recent return to the U.S. Army of 72 Vietnam War-era helicopters that were given to Mexico for drug interdiction, but which turned out to be too old and expensive to operate.

"Our country has the solid base ... to continue the war against drug trafficking with our own resources," she wrote.

The timing of Green's report proved embarrassing to Mexican and U.S. officials who were participating in a Cabinet-level bilateral conference in Washington on drug cooperation. Responding to questions that dominated a news conference closing the meeting y esterday, Green attempted to play down the situation, saying her report "does not mean an end of cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico in the fight against drug trafficking."

Green's report was the latest example of growing Mexican resentment of U.S. intervention in Mexican law enforcement and drug policy. It was hailed in Mexico as a warning shot to the United States government, which will soon begin drafting its annual repor t card on which foreign countries should be "certified" as eager partners in fighting drug trafficking.

"The terms the U.S. puts on cooperation become increasingly unacceptable," said independent Mexican Sen. Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, a member of the Senate foreign relations committee that is expected to discuss the report on Thursday. "The U.S. does not creat e a climate of cooperation. The U.S. is like the commander in chief of a war and we are all units under their command that must do what the U.S. asks us to do."

11-11-99