entional force beyond its territory," and points to China's engagement with multilateral institutions and conventions as commander-in-chief of U.S. Pacific forces, Admiral Dennis Blair, has declared that "China will not represent a serious strategic threat to the United States for at least twenty years ." China has demonstrated an increasing willingness to participate in efforts to control the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by subscribing to or signing since 1992: the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions, and the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). In addition, China has placed what the U.S. views as the most objectionable portion of its peaceful nuclear technology agreement with Iran on hold . China, last year, completed its first successful test of a spacecraft for manned flight. In an article written by John Leicester, he states that "this test has military implications because the same low-power propulsion system used to adjust the spacecraft's orbit in flight could also be used to alter the path of offensive missiles, helping them evade proposed U.S. anti-missile defense systems known as TMD and NMD . TMD, an acronym for Theater Missile Defense, and NMD, or National Missile Defense, would shoot down incoming missiles. The Clinton administration, with the support of Congress, is developing a limited national missile defense that could be deployed as early as 2005. It also is carrying out research with Japan on a regional missile defense . Leicester then goes on to explain that China has condemned this action and have said that this could spark a costly and dangerous arms race . I cannot help but think how hypocritical that sounds because of all the allegations of espionage on the part of China! China is also worried that the TMD technology could be passed on to Taiwan, allowing the island that Beijing regards as a renegade province to d...
