Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 7, 1990                   TAG: 9006070303
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CHINA CONSIDERS CHEMICAL SALE TO LIBYA, U.S. SAYS

The officials said that after Washington learned that Chinese companies and Libyan officials were negotiating the sale, the administration asked the Chinese government not to go through with it.

Bush administration officials said such a sale would violate China's commitment not to encourage the spread of poison gas to the Middle East.

Libya's chemical weapons program has been a major worry for the United States.

Bush administration officials said in March a fire at Libya's chemical weapons plant in Rabta might have been a hoax engineered by Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gadhafi. Also, the CIA has detected recent activity at the Rabta complex but no proof the plant is back in operation, administration officials said last week.

The administration's new concerns came Wednesday when a senior State Department official testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the administration's policy toward China.

Richard Solomon, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, indicated the administration was concerned about the possible export of chemical weapon ingredients by China to the Middle East. Solomon declined to identify the possible recipient or to offer any details.

"We've got some indications that something may be going on in that area, and we have expressed our concerns to them at a very high level," Solomon said.

Another administration official, who asked not to be identified, said the American Embassy in Beijing was instructed several days ago to ask the Chinese not to sell Libya the key ingredients of poison gas.

The United States' latest concerns have raised new questions about the Bush administration's conciliatory policy toward Beijing.

The administration recently decided to extend most-favored-nation trading status to Beijing and has also maintained high-level diplomatic contacts with China despite the continued repression there.

At the Senate hearing, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., complained that the Bush administration policy toward China had been a failure.

"You certainly can't defend China on trade; you can't begin to defend them on human rights; you can't begin to defend them on their handling of the situation since Tiananmen Square," said Biden, who questioned whether China was being responsive to concerns over the spread of missiles, poison gas and nuclear weapons.