About The Conference

Political Context and Objectives

The Third US-China Conference on Arms Control, Disarmament and Nonproliferation came at a critical time for US-China arms control and nonproliferation dialogues. The previous conference, held in Monterey in April 1999, focused exclusively on missile defense issues and included highly contentious debates. Since then, China’s international diplomatic campaign opposing US NMD deployment and its broader opposition to US foreign policy have intensified. Over the last year events such as NATO’s intervention in Kosovo have further complicated bilateral security dialogues. Thus, the context for US-China arms control and nonproliferation dialogues was significantly more complicated than during the April 1999 meeting.

Sino-US interactions on arms control and nonproliferation issues now confront three key challenges. First, the United States and China are in the process of gradually rebuilding their arms control and nonproliferation dialogue after a hiatus of over 16 months. Following the accidental NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Beijing cancelled virtually all bilateral nonproliferation dialogues until July 2000. As a result, the bilateral agenda is crowded with hard arms control and nonproliferation issues that have been lingering for the last two years.

A second challenge comes in the form of acute Sino-US differences over US national and theater missile defense policies. NMD and TMD issues increasingly affect all other aspects of bilateral security relations. For both Washington and Beijing, missile defenses are critical issues for national security planning in the coming decade. If not managed properly, disputes over NMD and TMD could bring China’s participation in international arms control and nonproliferation efforts to a grinding halt, with negative repercussions for global security.

Third, the US and Chinese arms control and nonproliferation proliferation agendas, in broad terms, have converged over the last 10 years. The United States and China increasingly share core assumptions about arms control and nonproliferation which can serve as a foundation for cooperation. The areas of disputes have narrowed while cooperation has expanded. This trend is obscured by the fact that the remaining problems are the most difficult for Washington and Beijing to address. The challenge for both countries is to leverage this impressive progress to manage the challenges described above while fostering increased convergence in the future.

To assist in addressing these challenges, the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and the China Institute of International Studies jointly organized the Third US-China Conference on Arms Control, Disarmament and Nonproliferation. The conference had four main goals:

• Support the recently restarted official dialogue on arms control and nonproliferation
• Highlight key bilateral arms control and nonproliferation achievements to build support for future cooperation
• Provide a forum for in-depth discussions of arms control and nonproliferation issues in order to increase each side’s understanding of the other side’s policies and perspectives
• Propose possible solutions to current problems, such as identifying confidence and security building measures (CSBMs) that might address differences over missile defense issues

Participants and Agenda

The Third US-China Conference on Arms Control, Disarmament and Nonproliferation was held from September 14-15 in Beijing, China. The conference brought together an unprecedented assortment of senior government officials and scholars from the United States and China.

This Track 1½ conference was the third in a series of bilateral meetings which gather high-level officials and scholars from the fields of both arms control/nonproliferation and US-China relations. The grouping of government and non-government experts from these various fields raises the level of discussion from a narrow security dialogue to one that places arms control and nonproliferation issues in the broader context of bilateral relations.

During the 2000 conference, the participants outlined areas of potential cooperation that might generate new momentum in bilateral relations and help re-establish trust damaged by the accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Both Chinese and American officials agreed that the unofficial dialogue fostered by the conference series played an important role in restarting and sustaining governmental cooperation on nonproliferation issues.

The discussions were divided into eight panels that covered a range of contemporary topics including: bilateral arms control and nonproliferation achievements, the international security environment and arms control, East Asia security and nonproliferation, South Asian security and nonproliferation, current challenges to the nonproliferation regime, missile defenses and confidence-building mechanisms, great power relations and the international arms control agenda, and fostering future bilateral arms control cooperation.

President Clinton’s decision to defer a decision on deployment of a US national missile defense (NMD) system contributed to the constructive tone of the discussions. The conference not only encouraged a frank and open dialogue on sensitive arms control and nonproliferation issues, but also produced a number of concrete suggestions on how the United States and China could manage differences over missile defense. Participants asked numerous questions about the presentations and engaged in spirited debate. Chinese and American officials credited the conference with setting a positive tone for the official consultations which followed the conference, which appear to have produced progress in resolving disputes over Chinese exports of ballistic missile technology.

This Conference Report aims to bring these issues into brighter light and sharper focus by providing a comprehensive description and analysis of the panel discussions. The report begins with an executive summary highlighting the conference’s major findings and conclusions. It continues with a panel-by-panel analysis of the conference proceedings. Particular emphasis is placed on identifying key differences between US and Chinese participants in an effort to establish a base-line understanding from which solutions may be sought.

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