China attacked over arms exports

Chinese arms exports are worsening a number of conflicts around the world, belying Beijing's claims that its approach to weapons sales is "cautious and responsible", according to a report published today by Amnesty International.

The human rights group said most discussion of Chinese weapons exports focused on transfers of nuclear and missile technologies to countries such as Iran, North Korea and Pakistan.

"Yet the routine export of conventional weapons and small arms has been contributing to human rights violations including in brutal armed conflicts."

China is one of the world's top 10 arms exporters and many of the companies involved in the trade were established by the People's Liberation Army and the police state agency, which benefit from the revenues. China's arms trade was estimated to be worth more than $1bn (€790m) a year, Amnesty said.

The largest suppliers include companies such as China North Industries, known as Norinco, and two companies controlled by parts of the PLA: China Poly Group and Xinxing Corp.

In 2005, a Chinese government report used the phrase "cautious and responsible" to describe its approach to conventional arms export licensing. But Amnesty said: "Its record in supplying arms to countries such as Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sudan suggests, by contrast, a dangerously permissive approach to licensing arms exports, both of conventional weapons and of small arms and light weapons."

Amnesty said some arms deals involved an exchange of weapons for raw materials, and cited since the 1990s barter deals with Iran, Liberia, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

China had also exported large quantities of small arms and light weapons to the Great Lakes Region of Africa, where they had been used in atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report also cited Chinese weapons as worsening conflicts in Nepal, Chad and elsewhere.