Global Security Newswire

While the Bush administration has imposed sanctions against specific Chinese companies for alleged WMD proliferation activities, it has also restrained from more sweeping sanctions in an effort to maintain Beijing’s diplomatic cooperation in other areas, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, Sept. 19).

“The real lesson we’ve learned is that the relationship with China is mature enough that we can whack ‘em with a sanctions decision and in other areas you keep the discussion going,” a U.S. official said.

Some experts have said, however, that separating proliferation concerns from the broader U.S.-Chinese relationship could reduce pressure on Chinese leaders to control companies engaged in proliferation activities, according to the Journal. In contrast, the Clinton administration used both public criticism and restrained sanctions to push for changes in Chinese behavior, said Bates Gill, a China scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton’s approach “is not about finger wagging in China’s face and portraying China internationally as a bad actor,” Gill said. “It is sanctions and we walk away. So I think the Chinese are less concerned about it, because it doesn’t undermine the broad U.S.-China relationship and it doesn’t undermine China’s international image,” he added (Susan Lawrence, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 30).