Chinese arms fuelling conflicts, says Amnesty

‘‘China has used the phrase ‘cautious and responsible’ to describe its arms export licensing, however, its record of trading arms in countries like Sudan and Myanmar show otherwise,’’ Colby Goodman of Amnesty International’s arms control campaign said in a prepared statement.

A duty officer in the spokesman’s office of the Foreign Ministry who refused to give his name said on Sunday they would look into the assertion but had no comment.

China rarely confirms sales of weapons and military equipment abroad, a secrecy that is compounding US concerns about how Beijing is using its rapidly rising economic and diplomatic power abroad. Senior Bush administration officials have publicly taken China to task for a robust military buildup at home and a lack of transparency in its defence policies.

The Amnesty report said a UN investigation in August 2005 showed China shipped more than 200 military trucks to Sudan, where large-scale violence in the Darfur region has claimed at least 180,000 lives and forced more than 2 million people from their homes since 2003.

China was also supplying Myanmar’s junta with weapons, the report said, including an August 2005 shipment of 400 army trucks, despite the army’s involvement in the ‘‘torture, killing and eviction of civilians,’’ Amnesty said.