Rice: No Evidence China Sold Weapons to Gadhafi

While recent reports have stated that Chinese defense companies offered to sell about $200 million of weapons to Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi’s struggling armed forces in July, the United States hasn’t found any evidence that China indeed sold weapons to Gadhafi’s troops, Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters Monday, The Hill reports.

Chinese officials did acknowledge to the Obama administration that the talks of sales occurred, but not any actual sales. "We've seen nothing to contradict" those claims, Rice said. Selling arms to Gadhafi would break rules approved by the United Nations. But Rice said she detects "no pattern of Chinese violations" of arms sales bans.

Chinese officials promised to "strengthen internal controls" to make sure meetings like the ones between Chinese weapons manufacturers and Gadhafi’s forces don’t happen again, Rice said.