Communist Internet Saturday 10th May 2000 9.30pm gmt ABM Treaty Cornerstone of Global Strategic Balance and Stability A senior Chinese disarmament official said in Beijing on Thursday that the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty remains the cornerstone for global strategic balance and stability. Sha Zukang, director-general of the Department of Arms Control and Disarmament under China's Foreign Ministry, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that revisions of the treaty will undermine the global strategic balance and stability and seriously affect international peace and security. Sha, an experienced Chinese diplomat in charge of arms control and disarmament, said that China opposes any revision of the ABM treaty. "It is a clear and steadfast stand," he stressed. He said that the treaty, which restricts development and deployment of any national ballistic missile defense system, safeguards the relative strategic balance and stability among the United States, Russia, and other nuclear powers. Though the US has said it wants to revise the ABM treaty to protect itself from "missile threats" of the so-called rogue states, Sha said the real reason for the US' insistence on the matter is that the country wants to develop its National Missile Defense system and seek an absolute military advantage over the rest of the world. In his view, once the international strategic balance and stability is destroyed, the global strategic structure will definitely undergo major changes. As a result, he said, the unilateral bent and military daring of American foreign policy will become... http://www.billkath.demon.co.uk/cw/abm/abm.html
