There are valid reasons to believe the US also turned a blind eye to Pakistani proliferation to Iran and North Korea at that stage. Though China joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1992, it continued its proliferation to Pakistan. The US brought out into the open the supply of 5000 ring magnets by China to Pakistan but chose to accept the Chinese explanation of its being a deal without central government approval.
The US also shielded Chinese supply of missiles to Pakistan till just a few months before President Clinton demitted office. When India carried out its nuclear tests in 1998, President Bill Clinton joined China in condemning the Indian nuclear tests but also talked of China’s legitimate interests in South Asia.
China’s hostility towards India was exhibited not only through its nuclear and missile proliferation to Pakistan, but in the stand it took against India on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and in the formulation of the Security Council Resolution in the wake of Indian nuclear tests. The arch proliferator, China is now talking of India’s exceptionalisation from the NPT should be within its framework.
Ever since US made up with China in 1971, the US had been applying pressure on India to cap, halt and roll back Indian nuclear capability. This policy was consistently pursued from 1967, when US would not extend a nuclear security guarantee to India till the Bush administration took office in 2001.
Curtisy : K. Subrahmanyam
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