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Pulling trigger on China

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WHEN it comes to beating China, one would think that human rights, trade deficits, proliferation, piracy and rhino horn sales would be enough sticks to be going on with.

Not so. If America's foreign policy wonks are going through a bad period as their aggressive attempts to regulate Beijing begin to backfire, there is yet another issue bubbling under which could leave bureaucrats looking very embarrassed indeed.

China's response to Washington's human rights scoldings has often been to point out the violence on America's streets and ask the question whether that is how ''free'' citizens should be living. But what if there was a growing movement in the US which had somehow managed to link Beijing to that very violence? It is not as improbable as it sounds. Activists and the media in the US are beginning to wake up to a problem that officials have been trying to sweep under the carpet - the direct link between China, the PLA, and the amount of cheap, dangerous guns flooding America's market.

A quick analysis of Chinese-made semi-automatic guns and some recent horror stories on America's streets is sobering indeed. AK-47s, or their close cousins such as the SKS or MAK-90, were in the hands of Wayne Lo, the Taiwanese student who killed two andwounded four in a random shooting spree at a Massachusetts college; of the Oklahoma Wal-mart killer of two; and of the madman who sprayed a Stockton, California playground with bullets, killing five and injuring 29. Chinese guns are also becoming the weapon of choice of more and more drug dealers and petty gangsters, not to mention organised criminals such as the triads.

The reason? NORINCO, the state-run enterprise which makes the weapons, sells them cheap. Wayne Lo bought his over the counter for a mere US$129 (HK$995), when domestically-made rifles can cost five times that. Small wonder that according to official figures, nearly one million Chinese guns were imported into the US last year, one third of the total.

While law-abiding citizens begin to sit up and take notice, the Treasury Department, which allows the deadly flow through perfectly-legal importers, has been turning a blind eye.

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