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发帖数: 2882 | 1 US far outstrips China in arms sales to dictators
Kristin Jones in New York
Jan 03, 2011
(IMG:http://www.scmp.com/files/SCMP/News/Static%20Files/SCM_News_aeroplane_graphic.jpg)
When it comes to arming autocrats in Africa, upstart China is no match for
the United States, a study of arms exports finds.
China's sales of weapons to dictatorial regimes such as Sudan and Zimbabwe
have sparked outrage from human rights advocates, academics and officials in
the West. Some say that Beijing is undermining the development of democracy
and rights in Africa.
In a State Department cable recently released by WikiLeaks, the top US
diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson, summed up the basic sentiment for an
audience of oil executives in Lagos, Nigeria, in February last year when he
noted: "China is a very aggressive and pernicious economic competitor with
no morals."
But compared with the US, China actually shows a preference for relatively
democratic clients such as Zambia and Namibia, according to a review of arms
transfers from the end of the cold war until 2006.
And morals or not, the US tends to favour autocrats and human rights abusers
- most notably its ally Egypt.
"The US is promoting its strategic interests even if it means promoting
authoritarian regimes, while China is more interested in economic
relationships," said Paul Midford, who co-authored the study with Indra de
Soysa using data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute.
The findings turned common wisdom on its head, said Barry Sautman, a
political scientist at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
"People naturally assume that because China is an authoritarian state, it
will want to sell arms to other authoritarian states, and that the US will
do the opposite," Sautman said.
The actual record is more complicated. In Sudan, a state with an egregious
record of atrocities against its people, China has indeed supplied weaponry.
But it is not the most important supplier of arms, the authors note. From
2001 to 2008, as international attention to China's involvement in Sudan
grew, Russia sold five times more arms to Khartoum, according to the
Stockholm data.
More of China's arms went to Egypt - its biggest market in Africa. But there
, Beijing's sales were dwarfed by the US. From 1989 to 2006, the US provided
Egypt with billions of dollars worth of fighter jets, tanks, missiles and
other arms.
Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's president, has ruled since 1981 under "emergency" law
that allows the government to detain people without charge. Torture by
police and security forces is routine.
"This is not to excuse Chinese arms sales to undemocratic or human rights-
violating regimes," says Ian Taylor, a professor of international relations
at the University of St Andrews who has written about China's role in Africa
. "But we need to remember that firstly, China is not the worst culprit in
this - the United States is, by far."
The Stockholm data includes sales of things like tanks, military helicopters
, and fighter aircraft. But it doesn't include small arms and dual-use
equipment, which are often sold through brokers rather than by direct
government-to-government arrangements.
This omission was significant, said Deborah Brautigam, an expert in China-
Africa relations at American University in Washington DC. Small arms,
including AK-47s and ammunition, comprised the bulk of Chinese weaponry sold
in places like Zimbabwe. And the trend, she added, may be towards more
Chinese arms sales across Africa - not fewer.
The authors might have come up with different results, she suggested, by
looking at a shorter and more recent time span.
"China's export of arms, like all its other exports, are likely on a sharp
rise year by year," Brautigam said.
But Chinese arms sales did not signify an effort to challenge values like
rights and democracy, Brautigam and other specialists said.
To those who had painted a picture of an emergent superpower that sought to
create a "Beijing consensus" of authoritarian states, the data from
Stockholm illustrated that "there may not be anything to that", Sautman said.
Midford and de Soysa are both political science professors at the Norwegian
University of Science and Technology. Their research was initially presented
at an international studies conference in New Orleans in February, and is
under review for publication in an academic journal. | M**d
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【在 t*******h 的大作中提到】
: US far outstrips China in arms sales to dictators
: Kristin Jones in New York
: Jan 03, 2011
: (IMG:http://www.scmp.com/files/SCMP/News/Static%20Files/SCM_News_aeroplane_graphic.jpg)
: When it comes to arming autocrats in Africa, upstart China is no match for
: the United States, a study of arms exports finds.
: China's sales of weapons to dictatorial regimes such as Sudan and Zimbabwe
: have sparked outrage from human rights advocates, academics and officials in
: the West. Some say that Beijing is undermining the development of democracy
: and rights in Africa.
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