Lyle Goldstein, a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University who specializes in China policy, said the gap between the official policy and the amount of information still leaving China has raised concerns among Beijing’s leadership.
“On the whole, Beijing has seemed quite nervous about such cooperation. Therefore, it is quite possible that these activities are either illicit or occurring without the blessing of the Chinese government.”
Goldstein said it is difficult to quantify the amount of information that Iran and Pakistan in particular have been able to glean from business relationships with Chinese entities.
“It’s regrettable that Chinese companies supply components for missile and/or WMD fabrication to both Pakistan and also Iran,” Goldstein said. “It’s rather difficult to judge the overall significance of these U.S. government claims given the paucity of detail in the (CRS) report.”
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