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People's Republic of China lies very near so-called 'Axis of Evil'

As the United States looks toward Iran, the administration shouldn't forget about China.

Date published: 10/12/2004

AS IRAN CREEPS ever so closer to becoming a nuclear power, it has been exposed as a transit nation for several of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers and a likely rest stop for several major players in al-Qaida. The Khomeinist mullahcracy has also played a large--but unacknowledged--role in the anti-American "insurgency" in Iraq. However, there is one aspect of the Iranian threat that has gone almost unnoticed: its longstanding ties to the People's Republic of China.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission found several instances of Communist China directly aiding Iran's nuclear-weapons program. Iranian front companies bought materials from Communist China for nuclear-weapons facilities. Roughly 50 Chinese experts are at the Saghand uranium mine, and several more experts from both the PRC and its North Korean satellite state supervised the installation of centrifuge equipment to enrich uranium at a plant near Isfahan.

Add the 2 tons of uranium the Communists sold to Iran in 1991, and what you have is an Iranian nuclear program aided at several key points by a willing ally in Beijing for at least 13 years. Included in the aid was helping Iran keep the program secret for more than a decade. Until Iran's nuclear ambitions were exposed in 2002 by an Iranian resistance group, Communist China made no effort to tell anyone about the intentions of its military client and ally--quite the opposite, in fact.

As for delivering those nukes, Communist China has sold missile technology to Iran for years. The most recent Communist contribution to Iran's missile development was a GPS-based navigation system that has vastly improved the accuracy of its 1,400-km-range Shihab-3 missile, a missile which can carry a nuclear warhead.

There have also been sales of missile parts, "dual-use" items, components of weapons of mass destruction, and other weapons to Iran for years. In some cases, Communist China even used its satellite in North Korea as a middleman for the sales, so as to avoid its own overly praised "export controls" (and U.S. sanctions).

While the Communists would certainly be happier if some of this information had not reached the West, they make no secret of their friendship for Iran. The mullahs are warmly greeted by the butchers in Beijing, and vice versa.

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Date published: 10/12/2004