This report provides background information and issues for Congress on maritime territorial and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) disputes in the East China (ECS) and South China Sea (SCS) involving China, with a focus on how these disputes may affect U.S. strategic and policy interests.

In their article "Chinese Strategic Weapons and the Plutonium Option," John W. Lewis and Xue Litai of the Center for International Security and Arms Control at Stanford University's International Strategic Institute present an unclassified look at plutonium processing in the PRC. The article draws heavily on unclassified PRC sources for its short look at this important subject. Interested readers will find more detailed information in the recently available works referenced in the article.

Lewis A. Dunn, a former Assistant Director of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and now a senior analyst with Science Applications International Corporation, looks to the future to offer "The Emerging Nuclear Suppliers: Some Guidelines for Policy ." Mr. Dunn notes that although most emerging suppliers are cautious, many are not party to existing nonproliferation treaties. He calls upon the nonproliferation community to continue the present policy of not supporting unsafeguarded nuclear activities. He suggests that the nonproliferation community work within existing standards and infrastructures of nuclear suppliers to convince emerging supplier nations of the merits of nuclear export control.