ABSTRACT
The United States favored a secure and independent People's Republic of China (PRC), but a radical change in Peking's defense policy toward a large-scale military buildup of Chinese forces was viewed as contrary to US interests. The administration's China policy was slowed by strong and growing debate among members and officials in Congress about the wisdom of what many observers saw as the next logical step forward in US-PRC relations—the sale of US weapons and weapons-related technology to China. Some of the strongest arguments in favor of increased US military transfers to the PRC centered on the effect they were said to have on Chinese and Soviet strategic planning. Rapid progress in US political and economic relations with China had coincided with a budding military relationship seen notably during the visits of Secretary of Defense Brown to the PRC and Chinese military specialists to the United States during early 1980.
