Non-intervention

United Nations

China came dangerously close to committing what she always condemned as the cardinal sin in international relations -- interference in another country's internal affairs by selling weapons to a party in a civil war as a Canadian newspaper reported that three state-owned Chinese companies offered to sell weapons and ammunition worth over US$200m to the Gaddafi regime through a third country, apparently in breach of the Security Council resolution 1970. A Chinese FM spokeswoman emphasised that the Chinese companies did not sign any contract or deliver any weapons to the Libyan government. Without bothering to explain the obvious contradictions, she said that China exercises strict management over all military export, but that the Chinese Government was not aware of Libya's contacts with the companies controlled by the Chinese Government. This merely adds to China's less than stellar record of compliance with UN sanctions.