A top US lawmaker has alleged that China was helping Pakistan with Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) and claimed that it was also engaged in bullying its neighbours in Asia.
Speaking at a Congressional meeting on Asia, Congressman Ted Poe expressed his concerns about China collaborating with Pakistan. Issues about China’s human rights violations were also raised.
They (China) are thieves. They steal our intellectual property. Cyber attacks, I believe they’re responsible for those, they’re bullying Asia, trying to make new sovereign territory in the South China Sea and then claim the area around it, they’re helping Pakistan with Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, and then you get to human rights, they’re the worst offender I think in the world .Ted Poe, Chairman of Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-proliferation and Trade
During the Committee hearing on the ‘Challenges and Opportunities in Asia’, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified before the committee but did not respond to Poe’s allegations.
Top Officials Asked About China’s Involvement in Pakistan
Earlier this week, Poe and Congressman Mike Rogers, sent a letter to US Secretary of State, John Kerry, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper seeking more information on the report that China has enabled a Pakistani nuclear missile capability.
In their letter, Rogers and Poe referred to a recent research by well know Chinese military technology expert Richard Fisher who has noted the design similarities between Pakistan’s Shaheen III TEL (transporter erector launcher) and China’s Sanjiang WS51200 TEL and a Chinese provided TEL North Korea’s new KN-08 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
Fisher concluded that “China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) has again enabled a Pakistani nuclear missile capability”. “We are deeply concerned that the TEL displayed in Pakistan was acquired from China,” Rogers and Poe said in the two-page letter.
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