China issues missile export controls

THE LONG-AWAITED missile export controls that Beijing committed to publishing almost two years ago were released by China's official Xinhua News Agency on August 25.

Following months of nonproliferation talks with the United States, China had agreed on November 21, 2000, not to help states develop "ballistic missiles that can be used to deliver nuclear weapons." It defined such missiles as those capable of carrying a 500-kilogram payload at least 300 kilometers, guidelines that mirror those in the Missile Technology Control Regime, of which China is not a member. To make its pledge more concrete, China said it would issue "at an early date" a "comprehensive" list of …