Watchdog blasts China's 'irresponsible' arms trade

SwordFish_13

Active member
Hi,

Source:AFP News

LONDON (AFP) - A leading human rights group has called China one of the world's most reckless arms exporters with one billion dollars in annual trade fuelling violence in countries like Sudan, Nepal and Myanmar.

"China is fast emerging as one of the world's biggest, most secretive and irresponsible arms exporters," Amnesty International said in a press release to accompany a report Sunday on the global arms trade.

The report accused China of helping to sustain brutal conflicts, criminal violence and other grave rights violations around the world, and indicated the possible involvement of Western companies in making some of the weapons.

"China describes its approach to arms export licensing as 'cautious and responsible', yet the reality couldn't be further from the truth," said Helen Hughes, Amnesty International's arms control researcher.

"China is the only major arms exporting power that has not signed up to any multilateral agreements with criteria to prevent arms exports likely to be used for serious human rights violations," she said in the press release.

The report said that China's highly secretive arms exports were estimated to be worth more than one billion dollars a year.

"As a major arms exporter and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, it is high time that the Chinese authorities live up to their obligations under international law," said Hughes.

"They must introduce effective laws and regulations banning all arms transfers that could be used for serious human rights violations or breaches in international humanitarian law."

Recent deals brought to light by Amnesty included the sale of more than 200 Chinese military trucks to Sudan in August 2005 which it says were normally fitted with US Cummins diesel engines.

The United States has an embargo on the sale of weapons to both China and Sudan, where similar vehicles are used for the killing and abduction of civilians in the troubled region of Darfur, Amnesty said.

Civil war and a humanitarian crisis in Darfur have left 180,000 to 300,000 people dead and 2.4 million people displaced since February 2003.

The report cited "regular Chinese military shipments to Myanmar," including 400 military trucks sent in August 2005 despite "the torture, killing and forced eviction of hundreds of thousands of civilians."

China's deals with Nepal in 2005 and 2006 included the sale of 25,000 Chinese-made rifles and 18,000 grenades at a time when the government was brutally repressing civilian demonstrators, it said.

The report, entitled "China: Sustaining conflict and human rights abuses," also mentions a burgeoning market in Chinese-made pistols to Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and particularly South Africa.

China rejected the allegations in the Amnesty report on Monday, with assistant foreign minister Li Hui giving some brief comments.

"I can't agree to this," Li said when asked about the report at a briefing on a summit this week of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional grouping.

"China and the other SCO member nations strictly follow the relevant international conventions and we live up to our obligations to international bodies and treaties," he said

The Chinese foreign ministry did not respond to requests for a more detailed reaction to the report.


Peace
-=SF+13=-
 
Good find Fish, I was reading about this on the train while texting IG's phone about this story. If I get a chance I will scan the articles I was reading which have some other collaborating evidence besides from AI.
 
Because 5000 of Wal-Mart's 6000 suppliers are Mainland Chinese companies. Because the grill portion of every Weber grill sold in the US was made in Ningbo, China by a Chinese company. Because US companies don't care about politics, they care about profits and American consumers don't stop to think and ask questions before they support these companies with their purchases.
 
Because 5000 of Wal-Mart's 6000 suppliers are Mainland Chinese companies. Because the grill portion of every Weber grill sold in the US was made in Ningbo, China by a Chinese company. Because US companies don't care about politics, they care about profits and American consumers don't stop to think and ask questions before they support these companies with their purchases.
Isnt there plenty of other third world nations to make our crap. China needs our cash a hell of a lot more than we need our crap, other nations will be more than happy to use their slave labor to give us cheap plastic toys.

Between the patent violations and their moneys artificial value and the fact i just dont like them, screw em. Lets start tradeing more with India or malaysia or hell vietnam for that matter. We are giving a nation money so it can turn around and buy things that will eventually be used to kill Americans.

Yeh I'm country bashing, I dont think anybody would be upset if I bashed N. Korea so why not china. Both are crappy communist countries that world would be better without.
 
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Interesting indeed,the Indian guy claims
Peace
-=SF+13=-
,but always posts threads about China and want to make conflictions between others while only India will be benefited and others lose.Interesting indeed and inclement indeed.
So will you stop posting threads about China ?IN fact Sandy used to do it a long time ago ,but he now have been get rid of that bad habit ,but you are still interested with others ,only the thief care about others more.
Stop you inclement words SF

Rabs wrote
Between the patent violations and their moneys artificial value and the fact i just dont like them, screw em. Lets start tradeing more with India or malaysia or hell vietnam for that matter. We are giving a nation money so it can turn around and buy things that will eventually be used to kill Americans.
reasonable in a sense.

Rabs wrote
Yeh I'm country bashing, I dont think anybody would be upset if I bashed N. Korea so why not china. Both are crappy communist countries that world would be better without.
stupid indeed and crazy enough.
 
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5070220.stm

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=185637758&p=y85638464

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10386270

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-06-12-voa11.cfm

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\06\13\story_13-6-2006_pg4_13

http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/542

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2222234,00.html

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,19449523%5E663,00.html

http://www.alertnet.org/redir/righsection_rel_art__index_htm/thenews/newsdesk/PEK166073.htm

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/144ef3a0-f965-11da-8ced-0000779e2340.html

And to explain YingYing's post and presence on the board I offer the following link...
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20876,19213793-2703,00.html
"Society is changing, nobody is supporting this wholeheartedly, even people in the central propaganda department. They are aware they have no moral grounds for what they do - for which there is a Chinese phrase for 'dirty tricks' - so they just make calls or leave instructions, or attack the internet."

The attack comes from about 30,000 net police, he said, "because they don't want to issue documents or leave records".

The Chinese authorities are now trying to extend this drive by professionals for more pervasive media control into a broader moral crusade incorporating enthusiastic amateur supporters.

They have just established the Beijing Online Media Association, for which they are seeking to recruit 200 "net supervisors". Their goal, says the Beijing Propaganda Department, is "to promote the campaign of running the web in a civilised way, using the web in a civilised way".

These volunteer net police, acting like reserve constables, will "regularly receive instructions from the association to look for uncivilised actions and unhealthy information appearing on websites". For this, they will be paid the token sum of 100 yuan ($16) per month.

Qualifications for the new web snoops include education above middle school, being 18 years old and with more than three years' online experience.

They are asked to submit background including name, gender, age, work unit and political background, and to send a 300-character essay on "running the web in a civilised way".
 
From 2000-2004 Russia selled 26.925 billion dollar weapons while USA selled 25.93 billion dollar weapons but China only 1.436 billion dollar weapons only takes 1/20 of America.............
 
Its not a question of the amount of sales YY, its WHO the Chinese are selling the weapons to.
 
bulldogg said:
Its not a question of the amount of sales YY, its WHO the Chinese are selling the weapons to.
america sell weapons to his "friends" and so does china.
 
Then why make excuses, just own up to supporting oppressive regimes and quit the duplicitous double-speak, tell Australia the Norinco handguns they are more and more frequently confiscating off criminals in their country are from sales made through shell companies set up in Taiwan and Macau.
 
A U S T R A L I A... not America, work on reading what's written, not what you're thinking is written.
 
jz said:
then why china and america donot have a war?
these are all political tricks.

I don't want a war between the US and China. If the Chinese are gone, who's going to make cheap consumer goods?! Who's going to infringe on copyright laws across the board?! Not to mention those Chinese gold farmers in the internet video game business are going to be gone! We need that services-based industry! :p
 
If the Chinese are gone, who's going to make cheap consumer goods?!
Maylaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Bangledesh, Cambodia, India, Parkistan, Bolivia, Peru, Panama just to name a few.
 
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Rabs said:
Isnt there plenty of other third world nations to make our crap. China needs our cash a hell of a lot more than we need our crap, other nations will be more than happy to use their slave labor to give us cheap plastic toys.

Between the patent violations and their moneys artificial value and the fact i just dont like them, screw em. Lets start tradeing more with India or malaysia or hell vietnam for that matter. We are giving a nation money so it can turn around and buy things that will eventually be used to kill Americans.

Yeh I'm country bashing, I dont think anybody would be upset if I bashed N. Korea so why not china. Both are crappy communist countries that world would be better without.
That's radical.
It's fact that China is selling weapons to their trick loving bad friends thoughtlessly.
Your clothes will be almost made in China.
Even my half of electronics are made in China .
It's a defect that made in China is nasty, but the advantage that they are inexpensive.
 
Rabs said:
Maylaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Bangledesh, Cambodia, India, Parkistan, Bolivia, Peru, Panama just to name a few.

True, but why have 300 million workers spread over X number of countries when you could have them all in one country? Less paperwork for the admin office! :D
 
it seems there are lots people who hate china so bad in this forum.

China's weapon exports 'legal, unimpeachable'
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-06-13 06:56

China has been exporting conventional weapons properly in the light of international rules, which is reasonable, legal and unimpeachable, Chinese expert said on Monday.

Teng Jianqun, a researcher with the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, told Xinhua that China has always put its limited arms export under strict control and surveillance, denouncing Amnesty International's slams on China's arms trade as irresponsible and groundless.

The human rights group released a report on Sunday, accusing China of entailing regional conflicts and human right violations by exporting a large quantity of weaponry to Sudan, Nepal, Myanmar and the Great Lakes countries of Africa.

"The charge comes out of nowhere, as China always abides by related international conventions and imposes rigid self-control in terms of arms export and transfer of military technologies," Teng said.

He noted that China adheres to three principles in arms trade: it should help enhance the self-defense capability of import countries, should not impair regional and global peace, security and stability, and should not be used to interfere with other countries' internal affairs.

"China's attitude has been widely applauded in the world, and its weaponry sales haven't jeopardized regional peace or caused any human rights disasters," he said.

As one of the most lucrative businesses in the world, arms trade plays an important role of ensuring economic profits and sustaining military industry in many countries.

Therefore, many countries capable of producing and exporting weapons will try to scrabble for more market shares in one way or another. "But China keeps to be one of the countries exporting the least weaponry," Teng said.

Statistics from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute show that from 2000 to 2004, the export by the United States was estimated at 25.9 billion U.S. dollars. Weaponry exported by China in this period valued 1.4 billion U.S. dollars, only 5 percent of that of the United States, the statistics show.

Teng said that China wasn't engaged in arms trade until the 1980s, but has kept its sales under limited quantities.

"According to the United Nations Conventional Arms Register, China sells much less conventional weaponry to other countries than the United States, Russia, Britain, France and Germany," he said.

Illegal traffic and excessive collection of small weapons has brought severe dangers to many countries and regions. They had been used in 47 out of 49 major atrocious conflicts worldwide in the 1990s, claiming up to 500,000 lives every year with 80 percent mainly women and children.

Thus, China has shown particular concern over its export in this field and promulgated a series of laws and regulations to supervise the production, storage, transport, trade, use and takeover of small weapons, Teng said.

China promulgated Law on Control of Guns in July 1996, issued regulations on Administration of Arms Export in October 1997, and started amending the regulations from October 2002.

According to the regulations, only enterprises granted licenses are allowed to be engaged in arms trade, and their export items and contracts must go through checkup by related official departments. Weaponry producers should offer valid certificates from import countries, including those on end users.

Those who break the regulations may get punishments or even criminal penalties, Teng said.

"The report rebuked irresponsibly China's arms suppliers for their defiance of related laws and regulations," Teng said.

Small weaponry companies in China have all kept detailed records of every links from production to sales. Many have built special computer management system.

Arms made in China are clearly marked with code of type, batch, production date and company to ensure the government able to identify and trace each small weapon.

"I cannot say there is no loopholes at all, but certainly far fewer compared with some western countries like the United States, " Teng said, adding that the number can be neglected.

China also sets up a system to clarify end users of its exported arms, so as to prevent weaponry entering political or religionary sensitive and unstable areas.

"The principles and actions China adopts in arms trade will not only facilitate global peace and regional stability, but promote healthy development of arms control and disarmament in the world," Teng said.
 
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