Who is selling arms irresponsibly?

In July, representatives from nearly 200 countries gathered at the UN headquarters in New York to negotiate and try to conclude an "Arms Trade Treaty".

The main purpose of the treaty is to regulate the international arms trade, combat illegal trade and reduce related humanitarian suffering. China firmly supported concluding the treaty by consensus and participated in the negotiations constructively.

However, at the very last moment, several western countries blocked the treaty by claiming that their congresses were not happy with the draft document for it, thus blowing away all efforts made by the international community to conclude the treaty during the previous six years. Ironically, the countries blocking consensus were those who had been strongly advocating reducing humanitarian suffering by reinforcing arms export control.

Contrary to those countries, whose behavior always contradicts their statements, the Chinese government has been taking a very cautious and responsible attitude in arms exports.

China's arms trade strictly follows three important principles:

1) exports should be conducive to the legitimate self-defense capabilities of the recipient country;

2) exports should not undermine the peace, security and stability of the region concerned and the world as a whole, and

3) exports should not be used to interfere with the internal affairs of the recipient country.

As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, China will never export arms to countries, regions or entities under UN arms embargoes.

China's arms exports are still at an initial stage. Compared with leading arms exporters, such as the US and Russia, China lags far behind both in terms of quantity and the level of technology of the exported arms.

According to data by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), from 2007 to 2011, there were five countries who sold more arms than China, namely the US, Russia, Germany, France and the UK.

Why are some western countries making irresponsible allegations against China's normal arms trade?

The answer is that they do not want to see the high quality and inexpensive arms from China getting a bigger market share. Dubbing China an "irresponsible player" under the cover of humanitarianism is one of their tricks.

To seize and maintain their own strategic and economic interests, these countries will hardly give up hegemony and their Cold War mentality.

With China's development and growth, they may get uneasy and will not stop using double standards in international affairs. This is self-evident to those countries themselves and anyone with vision can see through it as well.

The author is a Beijing-based researcher on international relations.

The opinions expressed here do not represent the views of the China Daily website.

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