2 September 2001
U.S. to Give Details of Shield Tests to China
By Mike Allen,
Washington Post Staff Writer

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the United States will begin intensive talks over the next several weeks to try to convince China it would not be threatened by the shield and should not accelerate a buildup of nuclear missiles pointed at the United States.

"We want to engage China on issues regarding missile defense, and we really haven't," Rice said in an interview. "We want to have serious talks with them about why this is not a threat to them. We want to have serious talks with them about why we think stability in the Asia-Pacific region would be well served by this capability."

Another administration official said that as a sweetener for China, the United States will signal that it recognizes both sides might want to resume nuclear weapons testing in the future. Such tests, now precluded by a voluntary worldwide moratorium, could allow China to field a new generation of mobile, multiple-warhead missiles.

The official said the United States has no plans for nuclear tests but reserves the right to conduct them because of concerns about the safety of nuclear weapons. "We have to maintain the reliability of our stockpile," the official said. "That's not something we can deny to others."

A missile defense shield, a system that would allow the United States to intercept enemy missiles, is one of Bush's most earnestly sought goals. The administration has not settled on the system's architecture, but it is likely to include land- and sea-based components, with the possibility of spaced-based elements. The administration maintains that the shield is designed not to defend against world powers such as China, but to offer protection against terrorists and rogue states such as Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

The proposals described yesterday are part of an emerging policy toward China that is taking shape as Bush prepares for a state visit with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in Beijing next month.

The relationship got off to a sour start when China held 24 crew members of a Navy surveillance plane for 11 days during Bush's third month in office. Now the administration is engaged in intense debate over the proper carrots and sticks to offer the Chinese: At the same time it is offering Beijing inducements to cooperate with missile defense, it is taking a tougher line on nuclear non-proliferation.

In response to concern over missile transfers to Pakistan, the United States imposed sanctions yesterday on a major Chinese arms manufacturer and banned U.S. companies from launching their satellites on Chinese rockets.

A senior U.S. official said yesterday that this American effort to stem missile proliferation showed that the Bush administration is not relying exclusively on the development of a missile shield to confront the dangers posed by the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

"We're being realistic," another administration official said. "We imposed these sanctions because the law required us to and because it was right to do. Overall, it's still about reducing the world's reliance on nuclear weapons."

Morton H. Halperin, a former official of the State and Defense departments who is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the talks Rice described are based on the administration's understanding that an effective missile defense shield would be very difficult to deploy without the cooperation of European allies. "It will be very hard to get that support if the deployment is over the objection of Russia and China," Halperin said.

China has about two dozen missiles pointed at the United States, and scholars expect that number to increase tenfold over the next decade. Rice said that because of the ongoing buildup, opponents of a missile defense shield should not argue that it "is somehow going to drive an arms race."

"No one likes the fact that there is a modernization going on. We don't think it's good for the world," Rice said. "But if we stopped all of our missile defense plans tomorrow, you would not see the Chinese cease their military modernization. This is a modernization that predates serious missile defense negotiations."

Rice said the briefing on missile defense technology and testing plans will be similar to ones that have been provided to Russia and U.S. allies in Europe.

Rice was interviewed after the New York Times posted an article on its Web site saying that the United States planned to abandon its objections to the Chinese buildup in an effort to overcome that country's opposition to Bush's missile defense program.

"The implication here that the U.S. is acquiescing in the Chinese nuclear modernization in order to buy China's acceptance of missile defense is just not right," Rice said. "The United States will continue to say that further nuclear buildup is not necessary and is not good for peace and stability. There's no conscious policy to try to take advantage of this recognition of the Chinese military modernization for something else."

The possibility of accepting nuclear tests by China would constitute a major change in U.S. policy. Bush opposes ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which bans testing of nuclear weapons, on the grounds that it is not verifiable or enforceable. It was rejected by the Senate in 1999. But the president supports an informal moratorium on testing that was initiated by his father in 1992.

"Testing is not a near-term issue for anyone," Rice said. "We believe that the moratorium should stay in place. We don't believe that anyone has any reason to test."

Conservatives warned the administration against giving too much ground for the sake of the missile shield. Kenneth Adelman, who was President Ronald Reagan's arms control director, said he disagreed with the notion that "if you act very sweetly toward the Chinese, the Chinese will reciprocate."

"My experience over many years of negotiating with the Chinese is that they take what you give and give almost nothing in return," Adelman said.

Staff writer Alan Sipress contributed to this report.