On 10 May 1996, the State Department decided the US would not impose mandatory economic sanctions against China for the sale of nuclear technology to Pakistan. On 21 May 1996, U.S. Defense Secretary Perry announced that the US had learned that China was seeking to obtain SS-18 strategic missile technology from Russia and the Ukraine. On the following pages we will briefly discuss each of the above issues. However, in 1994 he caved in to pressure from major corporations wanting to do business with China and decided to de-link the two issues again. One glance at the trade balance between the United States and China confirms this.
China is far more dependent on trade with the U.S. than the U.S. is on trade with China.
About 40 percent of China's exports go to the United States, while less than 2 percent of U.S. exports go to China. The developments over the past two years only indicate that China is becoming a more powerful, hostile, and belligerent bully, which is less likely to be restrained by the niceties of human and political rights, and more apt to break agreements on anything from non-proliferation to trade. Congress has 60 days to decide on the MFN-renewal issue. The U.S. has the leverage, it should use it to stand up for the basic principles on which this nation was founded. At the end of that episode the Chinese government signed an agreement that it would take measures against pirating.