China has confirmed that representatives from the recently ousted Libyan regime of Moammar Gadhafi were dispatched to China to ask state-controlled weapons makers to aid in their battle against rebel and NATO forces, a revelation that may complicate Beijing’s relationship with the country’s new regime, the Wall Street Journal reported. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu confirmed that a meeting did take place, but said that the government had been unaware at the time and that no deals resulted from the meeting. “The Chinese companies didn’t sign any military trade contracts with Libya, nor did they export any military products to Libya,” Jiang said. The statement came in response to allegations made by the Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper, that three Chinese companies had considered selling US$200 million worth of weapons to the dying Gadhafi regime even as the struggle’s tide was turning in favor of NATO and rebel forces.
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