'China making dramatic upgrades to N-arsenal'

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Thursday , May 08, 2008 at 1659 hrs A leading arms expert said Thursday that China is making dramatic improvements to its nuclear arsenal, raising questions for future arms control efforts.

Recent upgrades have increased the accuracy and mobility of China's arsenal, while a switch from liquid to solid fuel has shortened reaction times, said Bates Gill, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

"China stands out in its effort to modernize, expand and improve its nuclear weapons capability," Gill said at a panel for journalists while on a visit to Beijing to promote the institute's annual report on the global arms industry.

China says it will never be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict, and its arsenal, estimated at just over 100 nuclear-armed missiles, is the smallest of the five main nuclear weapon powers.

China signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1992 and Gill said the recent steps are aimed mainly at reducing the vulnerability of China's deterrent force.

Still, he said, among the five nuclear powers, China is "making the most dramatic improvements in its nuclear force and this obviously raises arms control questions."

After more than a decade of double-digit percentage increases in annual defense spending, improvements in China's conventional military "are even more dramatic," Gill said.

"This is a dramatic increase in the military capability of China, targeted mostly at Taiwan but clearly with the possibility going forward of force projection elsewhere," Gill said, referring to the self-governing island that China claims is part of its territory and has threatened to invade.

"So this again muddies the picture for us when we think of China as a player in the arms control agenda," Bates said. He said China would need to be engaged in future efforts to cap or reduce numbers of nuclear weapons.

But Gill praised Beijing for reining in its sales of weapons and military technology abroad, which he said was largely done out of a desire to be viewed as a more responsible player in international society.

According to the institute, China has only a 2 percent share of the global arms export trade.

"It's been a very positive, I think, shift in the way China looks at the problem of nonproliferation," Bates said. However, he said authorities need to strengthen regulation to prevent weapons from finding their way into conflict zones, particularly in Africa, where Chinese arms are used by both government and rebel forces in Sudan's Darfur region.

Teng Jianqun, a retired People's Liberation Army colonel, said China has substantial restrictions on weapons sales abroad, but conceded some dealers violated the rules and were beyond the government's direct control.

Speaking alongside Gill on the panel, Teng said further steps were being taken to boost awareness of the rules, partly through courses for government and defense industry leaders run by the Foreign Ministry-sponsored China Arms Control and Disarmament Association. Teng is the group's deputy secretary-general.