August 23, 2006 :: AFP :: News
Chinese regulations make it “impossible” for a missile China sold to Iran to be passed on to Lebanon’s Hezbollah forces, a senior Chinese diplomat claimed yesterday. Sun Bigan, China’s special envoy to the Middle East, told reporters that China has never exported arms to Hezbollah, including the radar guided C-802 (CSS-N-8) anti-ship cruise missile that Hezbollah fired at an Israeli warship on July 14. “I think the information or the news is not accurate about the use of Chinese weapons in the Lebanon-Israel battlefield,” Sun said. “I have taken note of these reports. The information itself is groundless.” Sun, however, did not rule out the possibility that these weapons may have been transferred to Hezbollah by a third party. “China does have some normal arms trade with some countries, however, the arms trade is with sovereign states. China does not provide weapons to any organizations, groups, or [political] parties.” He added that if Chinese weapons had in fact been transferred to another entity, China would be “very concerned,” but as far as he knew Beijing had not launched an investigation into the matter.
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