Although China controls only 2 percent of the global arms market, Beijing’s impact "is measured less by the value of its sales than by the character of its clients," says William D. Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. A brief by the Washington-based non-profit public policy institute, released Wednesday, points out that China is currently "an arms supplier of last resort for dictators and human rights abusers", including Sudan, Zimbabwe and Myanmar (Burma).

"China’s domestic policies have come under much-deserved scrutiny in the run-up to the Olympics," noted Hartung, author of the study, who says Beijing’s clients include politically repressive regimes.

"We shouldn’t forget that the Chinese government’s most egregious act has been its role as an enabler of mass murder in Darfur," he said.

Without Chinese support, he argued, the ability of the Sudanese government and its allies to kill, maim, and intimidate the people of Darfur would be greatly diminished.

Asked whether Western nations are equally guilty in their arms sales policies, Hartung told IPS that major suppliers like the United States, Britain and France all supply dictatorships and human rights abusers.

But he pointed out that China’s markets include the few repressive regimes that these major exporters have chosen not to supply.

For example, in the case of the U.S., 17 of its 25 largest recipients of weapons in the developing world in 2007 were designated as major human rights abusers or undemocratic regimes by its own State Department.

"Under various laws and political commitments [not formal treaties], major suppliers are committed to limiting sales to regions of conflict and major human rights abusers," according to Hartung.  LINK