What Trade War?: UK to Sell China ‘Unlimited’ Amount of Radar Tech, Hardware

A British defence company will supply an unlimited amount of equipment to China’s military, including airborne radar technology, according to insider information from Britain’s Department for International Trade.

Although the defence supplier has not yet been publicly identified, an ‘open individual export license' (OIEL) has been established since April, two months after British Prime Minister Theresa May visited Beijing, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

nder the new agreement, the supplier will "export an unlimited quantity of goods," including equipment, components, software and technology for military radar systems. Past agreements between the nations had limited the amount and value of British weapon sales to China.

The equipment covered by the license includes "target acquisition, weapon control and countermeasure systems" for "aircraft, helicopters and drones," according to SCMP.

"It's potentially a big licence, and it does say the end user is the air force," Andrew Smith, a spokesperson for the London-based NGO Campaign Against Arms Trade, told the news organization.

Generally, open individual export licenses are valid between five and 10 years. However, "the values are never published, so the figure could be very high," Smith noted.

Even though Britain is an ally of the US, the deal implies that London will sell weapons to China, despite the ongoing trade war between Beijing and Washington.

The current trade war between the US and China escalated in June when US President Donald Trump slapped a 25 percent tariff on $50-billion worth of Chinese goods, with Beijing responding in kind. Trump accused China of "unfair trade," including alleged state-led efforts to steal US technology and intellectual property as well as "discriminatory technology licensing practices."

In September, Trump issued new tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, prompting a tariff hike on $60 billion of American products from Beijing.

According to Li Bin, a senior fellow working in the Nuclear Policy Programme and Asia Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China doubled its direct investment in Britain last year to more than $20 billion.

https://sputniknews.com/military/201811111069716310-uk-to-sell-china-unlimited-amount-of-radar-tech-hardware/