China: The secret sale of a terrifying arsenal of weapons to some of the world's worst trouble spots is fuelling human rights abuses and sustaining conflicts in countries such as Sudan, Nepal, Burma and South Africa, human rights watchdog Amnesty International said in a report issued today.
China sells major conventional weapons as well as small arms and light weapons, plus police and security equipment to armed forces and law enforcement agencies. Arms exports are estimated to be worth nearly €800 million a year and often involve the exchange of weapons for raw materials to fuel China's rapid economic growth, such as oil from Sudan.
"China's arms exports policy is reckless and dangerous, paying no heed to human rights," said Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen.
China remains the only major arms exporting power that has not entered into any multilateral agreement which sets out criteria, including respect for human rights, to guide arms export licensing decisions, the human rights watchdog said in the report, entitled "China: Sustaining conflict and human rights abuses", the organisation said.
"In a bid to continue economic expansion and grab a slice of the lucrative global weapons market, China has shipped weapons into conflict zones and to countries that torture and repress their people," said Ms Allen.
Over the last 20 years China has supplied military, security and police equipment to countries with a record of gross human rights violations, and as it emerges as one of the world's major arms exporters, China is increasing its reach and influence in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
China insists its arms exports are lawful, despite growing international criticism. China's resurgence, it insists, is a "peaceful rise" and Beijing cites Washington's nuclear co-operation with India, its role in arming Taiwan and the strengthening of US-Japan ties as evidence of American double standards.
China continues to allow military equipment to be sent to Sudan despite well-documented and widespread killings, rapes and abductions by government forces and militia in Darfur.
Last week, assistant foreign minister He Yafei defended China's role in the country ahead of a visit next week by premier Wen Jiabao to seven African nations.
"China's co-operation with Sudan, like its co-operation with other African countries, is normal and mutually beneficial. It delivers tenable benefits to the Sudanese people and certainly facilitates Sudan's economic growth and its improvement of its human rights record," he said.
Washington has sanctioned Chinese firms in the past, accusing them of violating rules on transfers of weapons technology.
Amnesty said it is not just major weapons of mass destruction that are the problem and it is the weaponry on a smaller scale that is contributing to a worsening human rights situation.
"Much international debate about China's controls on arms exports has focused on the transfer of nuclear or long-range missile technology 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," Amnesty said.