BEIJING - China has rejected media reports that Pakistan gave
it access to a radar-evading helicopter that crashed during the U.S.
mission to kill Osama bin Laden, calling them "preposterous."
The
international business newspaper Financial Times reported Sunday that
Pakistan allowed Chinese military engineers to photograph and take
samples of the stealth chopper before giving it back to the U.S.
In
its first public response, China's Defense Ministry said in a one-line
statement late Tuesday, "This report is baseless and preposterous."
The
U.S. suspects that Pakistan shared the technology with China in
retaliation for its May 2 raid that killed bin Laden on Pakistani soil,
humiliating Islamabad.
A Pakistani official has denied the
charge, saying Pakistan was aware the U.S. had bin Laden's compound and
the helicopter wreckage under round-the-clock surveillance after the
raid, so it would know whether foreign technical experts had examined
it.
The helicopter was one of two modified Black Hawks that
defense experts said evidently used radar-evading technology plus noise
and heat suppression devices to slip across the Afghan-Pakistan border,
avoid detection by Pakistani air defenses and deliver two dozen Navy
SEALs into the hiding place of the al-Qaida leader.
One of the
choppers crash-landed during the mission. Before leaving with bin
Laden's corpse, commandos blew up the main body of the chopper,
apparently to keep its stealth components secret.
Photos of the
wreckage with the tail still visible flashed around the world, drawing
immediate chatter among defense experts who noticed it appeared to have
previously undisclosed technology.
The relationship between the
U.S. and Pakistan took a nose dive after the bin Laden raid, which
prompted celebrations in the U.S. but anger and embarrassment in
Islamabad. Ties were already strained despite billions of dollars in
American aid over the last decade because of Pakistan's reluctance to
target Taliban militants on its territory who stage cross-border
attacks against NATO troops in Afghanistan.
In contrast to the
fickle Washington relations, Pakistan calls its relationship with China
an "all-weather friendship." China provides Pakistan with aid and
investment, while Pakistan offers Beijing diplomatic backing, including
among Islamic nations who might otherwise criticize China's handling of
its Muslim Uighur (pronounced WEE'-gur) minority.
The two also
both distrust India. China fought India in a brief but bloody 1962
border war, and Pakistan has fought its neighbor three times since 1947. AP
