"DUAL USE" HAS A SINGLE PURPOSE
"A study we recently completed shows that the Commerce Department approved more than $15 billion worth of strategically sensitive exports to China in the last decade. Although supposedly intended for civilian purposes, the department's records show that much of this 'dual-use' equipment went directly to nuclear-missile and military sites, the vertebrae of China's strategic backbone...."
FOR WEALTHY CONTRIBUTORS, TREASON IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS
"More than half of the $15 billion in exports consisted of computers. China had been denied access to high-performance computers until President Clinton loosened computer controls in 1996, after strenuous lobbying by his political supporters in Silicon Valley. Then a flood of computer exports began.
"By now China has imported about 400 high-performance machines, just what would be needed to process the American nuclear codes and simulate the workings of our arsenal. Although China has insisted that these computers were imported for civilian uses, it has refused virtually all requests to let United States officials see what the machines are really doing. ..."
AID AND COMFORT TO OUR FOES IS THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL
"American equipment was approved for export to the National University of Defense Technology, which helps the People's Liberation Army design advanced weapons; the University of Electronic Science and Technology, which helps develop stealth aircraft and advanced military radar, and the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, which helps develop missiles and specializes in guidance, navigation and flight dynamics. ..."
RED CHINA WAS GIVEN THE CAPACITY TO WAGE WAR AGAINST U.S. AND OTHERS
"American companies were also licensed to sell China a great deal of noncomputer equipment that could be used for weaponry. This included $241 million worth of machinery for making special semi-conductors that can go into missiles, torpedoes, smart munitions, fuses and secure communications equipment; $131 million worth of high-speed oscilloscopes, which can record data from nuclear weapon tests, help design nuclear weapon firing circuits and develop missile guidance systems; $111 million worth of high-accuracy machine tools that can produce the precision parts needed for nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and $5.4 million worth of vibration-testing equipment, which can enable nuclear weapons and missiles to withstand shock, impact and rapid acceleration. ..."
THEIR PRIVATE PROFITS JEOPARDIZE OUR PERSONAL SURVIVAL
"Are high-tech exports so vital that we are willing to help China build a potent nuclear arsenal and the modern missile force to deliver it?"
CHINESE REDS WASTE NO TIME PUTTING U.S. TECHNOLOGY TO WORK
James Risen and Jeff Gerth continue (New York Times, 5/14/99, p. 1) their report on the Chinese theft of U.S. secrets: "China is close to deploying a nuclear missile with a warhead whose design draws on stolen American secrets, United States intelligence officials say.
"A long-range Chinese missile, known as the Dong Feng-31, is being equipped with a small nuclear warhead whose design uses secret American technology....
"According to the assessments, the missile is expected to be deployed within three or four years, giving China what officials believe would be its first warhead designed using secret American technology...."
MOBILE MISSILE CAPABILITY WILL LIMIT U.S. OPTIONS
"American officials believe that the technology suspected of having been stolen for use in the DF-31's warhead will help China achieve its goal of building a modern nuclear arsenal that relies on mobility to evade attacks. The DF-31 will be a truck-based mobile missile that can be moved, thus making it more difficult to detect and destroy. ..."
5,000-MILE RANGE MAKES WEST VULNERABLE TO NUCLEAR BLACKMAIL
"China may soon be using secrets stolen from the United States on weapons capable of a significant range that could include Europe, Asia and possibly the western United States.
"American intelligence assessments say the DF-31 will have a range of approximately 5,000 miles. It is expected to be ready for deployment as early as 2002 or 2003.
"'The DF-31 ICBM will give China a major strike capability that will be difficult to counterattack at any stage of its operation,' a 1996 Air Force intelligence report on the DF-31 stated. 'It will be a significant threat not only to U.S. forces deployed in the Pacific theater, but to portions of the continental United States and to many of our allies.'"
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of May 15, 1999 CLINTON COVERED UP CHINESE ESPIONAGE Jeff Gerth and James Risen (New York Times, 5/2/99, p. 1) continue their investigative reporting on the Chinese espionage assault on the Los Alamos nuclear labs and the resulting threat to U.S. security: A SIX-MONTH DELAY IN ACTING TO DEFEND U.S. SECURITY "A secret report to top Clinton Administration officials last November warned that China posed an 'acute intelligence threat' to the Government's nuclear weapons laboratories and that computer systems at the labs were being constantly penetrated by outsiders. "Yet investigators waited until March to search the computer of a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who had been under investigation for nearly three years, suspected of spying for China. And it was not until April that the Energy Department shut down its classified computer systems to impose tighter security over their data. "Meanwhile, in February, the scientist, Wen Ho Lee, tried to delete evidence that he had improperly transferred more than 1,000 files containing nuclear secrets, officials said." NERO FIDDLED WHILE ROME BURNED -- CLINTON DIDDLED AS AMERICA GOT SCORCHED "The classified report contains numerous warnings and specific examples showing that outsiders had gained access to the computer systems at United States weapons labs as recently as June 1998. ... "The report, the first comprehensive review of its kind, was prepared by United States counterintelligence officials throughout the Government. It confirmed and elaborated on long-standing concerns about the vulnerability of the weapons laboratories to espionage." WAS IT TREASON OR GROSS NEGLIGENCE? "The report was distributed to the highest levels of the Government, including Bill Richardson, the Secretary of Energy; William S. Cohen, the Secretary of Defense; Janet Reno, the Attorney General; President Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel R. Berger, and three dozen other senior officials at law enforcement, defense and intelligence agencies. A Government official gave a copy of the report to The New York Times." CORRECTIVE ACTION NOT TAKEN "According to the report, the Energy Department recorded 324 attacks on its unclassified computer systems from outside the United States between October 1997 and June 1998, including instances when outsiders successfully gained 'complete access and total control to create, view modify or execute any and all information stored on the system.' ... "The 25-page counterintelligence report contains many examples of lax security and serious intelligence breaches at the labs that have not been previously disclosed, involving more than a dozen foreign countries. "Foreign spies 'rightly view D.O.E. as an inviting, diverse and soft target that is easy to access and that employs many who are willing to share information,' the report states. The Energy Department is responsible for building and designing America's nuclear weapons." CLINTON PLAYS HOST TO RED CHINESE "China is cited in the report as posing the most serious security threat to the Untied States weapons labs. The report also singles out Russia and India as immediate threats. ... "'China is an advanced nuclear power yet its nuclear stockpile is deteriorating,' it continued. 'As such, China has specifically targeted D.O.E. for the collection of technical intelligence related to the design of nuclear weapons.' The report concludes, 'This effort has been very successful and Beijing's exploitation of U.S. national laboratories has substantially aided its nuclear weapons program.' ..." ON WHOSE SIDE IS MR. BERGER? "In July 1997, Mr. Berger was briefed again. This time, the briefing included evidence that the Chinese were focusing on computer systems at Los Alamos, in particular computer simulations and codes for nuclear weapons, according to one United States official. At about the same time, officials at the Energy Department, the lab and the F.B.I. were all also warned that the Chinese were attempting to gain access to computer systems at Los Alamos.... "In February, Mr. Lee took a second polygraph. This time, officials said, he was asked about his computer use and some of his answers were seen as deceptive. Two days later, apparently aware that investigators were now suspicious about his computer use, Mr. Lee deleted between 1,000 and 2,000 files, officials said. "Mr. Lee's deletions involved millions of lines of computer codes he had downloaded, mostly in 1994 and 1995, from his classified computer system to an unclassified system. Such unclassified systems at the labs have been successfully attacked by outsiders, according to the 1998 intelligence report.... "[I]nvestigators pored through his computer records, recreated the deleted files and learned that Mr. Lee had downloaded computer data and code that, in effect, were the distillation of more than a half-century of research on how to perfect nuclear weapons, officials said." COMMUNIST CHINA SETS UP SHOP IN CASTRO'S CUBA According to China Reform Monitor (no. 201, 5/11/99), published by the American Foreign Policy Council, "The recent meeting between China's Minister of Defense Chi Haotian and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro, has led to a joint military agreement that threatens the United States, the Orlando Sentinel reports. China has agreed to build a new electronic spying facility and modernize Cuba's satellite tracking base at Jaruco, Cuba. The facility neighbors the large Russian-manned signal intelligence complex at Lourdes, which can monitor U.S. civilian and military telecommunications in an area that covers from California to Europe. Under the agreement, the Chinese will also modernize Castro's telecommunications monitoring base in Havana."
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of March 31, 1999 SANDY BERGER — FOOL, MONEY-GRUBBER, OR TRAITOR? Edward Timperlake and William C. Triplett II, authors of Year of the Rat, are probably the leading experts in the United States on the Communist Chinese threat. In a breathtaking article in The Washington Times (3/22/99, p. A19) they point out facts which so many in the media have missed or ignored: BERGER IS THE ANTI-NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER "We believe that, for the national interest, President Clinton's National Security Adviser Samuel Sandy Berger should resign immediately. "For the past six years, Mr. Berger has presided over a failed and ultimately corrupt policy toward the Chinese military that betrays both the democratic standards of the American people and the national security of the United States. He is the classic example of the wrong person in the wrong job at the wrong time." BERGER WAS CHIEF WASHINGTON TRADE LOBBYIST FOR RED CHINA "Right out of the starting gate, Mr. Berger was an unfortunate choice for a national security position with the government because of his prior role as the chief Washington lobbyist for the Chinese government's trade office. Having once had a personal financial stake in the promotion of pro-Beijing policies raises an immediate question of his present judgment and decision-making. If only for appearances, let alone personal ethics, he should have recused himself from anything connected to Beijing and its military ambitions." BERGER STILL PRIORITIZES RED TRADE OVER U.S. SECURITY "Instead, Mr. Berger seems to be around whenever, in our opinion, Clinton administration decisions are made that favor People's Republic of China trade ties over American national security interests. "We now know, for example, it was Mr. Berger who led the charge to repeal export controls on military useful satellites to China. According to White House Documents released to Congress in 1995, as soon as Secretary of State Warren Christopher made his decision to keep controls, Mr. Berger began campaigning from the White House to reverse the decision. In another White House retreat, the Berger decision was reversed three weeks ago when the administration was forced to withdraw an export license for a Hughes spy satellite destined for China." BERGER SQUASHED ACTION AGAINST HI-TECH TRANSFERS "We also now know it was Mr. Berger who was deeply involved in saving Bernard Schwartz's Loral Space systems from the bloodhounds at Justice. Even though Mr. Berger's own staff was informed by the State Department that Loral's offenses were serious and knowing...that Loral was likely to be indicted for secret help it gave China's missile program, he recommended going ahead with a presidential waiver. As a result, the leading donor to President Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign is very likely to escape prosecution." BERGER HELPED DENY, DELAY, DISCREDIT EVIDENCE OF ESPIONAGE "And we now know Mr. Berger was directly involved in the administration's decision to ignore a successful Chinese penetration of our nuclear weapons labs. Perhaps his judgment was clouded by campaign contributions from American companies eager to do nuclear power deals with Beijing or even more sinister PLA campaign donations." SECRETS GIVEN TO CHINA KEPT FROM CONGRESS "Regardless, when the senior leadership of the Executive Department deliberately withholds national security informationfrom [sic] congressional oversight, the very foundation constitutional checks and balances are in jeopardy. "On Mr. Berger's watch, Chinese intelligence carried out a massive and successful penetration of the White House itself. A number of persons identified by the CIA as associates of Chinese intelligence poured millions of dollars in illegal campaign funds into the 1996 Clinton-Gore re-election effort. The Riady family of Indonesia, criminal syndicate figure Ng Lapsing, convicted entrepreneur Johnny Chung, fugitive businessman Ted Sieong and indicted Democratic fund-raiser Maria Hsia all had such connections, all were major donors and collectively, they had hundreds of contacts with the White House, President Clinton or Vice President Al Gore." RED CHINESE BOUGHT INFLUENCE WITH CLINTON-GORE-BERGER "On Mr. Berger's watch, American anti-proliferation laws have not been applied to Chinese military companies when illegal campaign contributions to Clinton-Gore were part of the mix. High-ranking Chinese military spy and arms dealer Liu Chaoying laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars into the 1996 campaign, all the while secretly selling cruise missiles to Iran. We have known who she is and what she does for a long time. There is no legitimate justification for the administration's failure to enforce the Gore-McCain Act against her activities." WHITEWASHING CHINESE REDS BLOODY FINGERS "On Mr. Berger's watch, the Clinton administration inaugurated a program of rehabilitation for Chinese generals who have the blood of Chinese young people on their hands. As near as we can determine, at least six People's Liberation Army general officers with personal command and control responsibility for the 1989 [Tiananmen] Square massacre have received the royal treatment in Washington. Nearly all this occurred in secret. "On Mr. Berger's watch, Chinese military elements have occupied strategic islands hundreds of miles off the China coast. These military outposts sit astride shipping lanes in which all of Japan's energy needs are transported. The administration response has been one of attempting to interfere with legitimate congressional oversight to minimize the American people's knowledge of this emerging threat." BERGER DEFENDS RED CHINA BEACHHEADS AT PANAMA LONG BEACH "Finally, in a preview of the infamous definition of what is is, Mr. Berger told the Congress in 1997 there is no credible evidence COSCO (the China Ocean Shipping Co.) is engaged in a host of illegal activities, including arms smuggling. This misleading and dishonest statement completely ignores COSCO's pivotal role as the delivery boys for China's arms merchants. COSCO is on the record having delivered missiles to trouble spots and 2,000 fully automatic machine guns destined for drug gangs in the United States. "On Mr. Berger's watch, America has been placed in greater jeopardy than when he took the oath of office. He has severely compromised our safety, and no excuse can hide the fact he did it with his eyes wide open. He must resign now."
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of March 15, 1999 RED CHINA MAKES "GREAT LEAP FORWARD" IN ITS ABILITY TO COERCE U.S. James Risen and Jeff Gerth, writing for The New York Times (3/6/99, p. 1), have broken a story of Chinese nuclear espionage, starting in the 1980's, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The Times reported that "Working with nuclear secrets stolen from an American Government laboratory, China has made a leap in the development of nuclear weapons: the miniaturization of its bombs...." TRANSFER OF NUCLEAR SECRETS LETS BEIJING "MIRV" ITS MISSILES "Until recently, China's nuclear weapons designs were a generation behind those of the United States, largely because Beijing was unable to produce small warheads that could be launched from a single missile at multiple targets and form the backbone of a modern nuclear force." TREASON IN THE 1980'S, DETECTED IN 1995, ACTED UPON IN 1999 "But by the mid-1990's, China had built and tested such small bombs, a breakthrough that officials say was accelerated by the theft of American nuclear secrets from Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. "The espionage is believed to have occurred in the mid-1980's, officials said. But it was not detected until 1995, when Americans analyzing Chinese nuclear test results found similarities to America's most advanced miniature warhead, the W-88...." CLINTON'S "STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP" WITH BEIJING CONTRIBUTED TO COVER-UP "The White House was told of the full extent of China's spying in the summer of 1997, just before the first American-Chinese summit meeting in eight years — a meeting intended to dramatize the success of President Clinton's efforts to improve relations with Beijing.... "[S]ome American officials assert that the White House sought to minimize the espionage issue for policy reasons. "‘This conflicted with their China policy,’ said an American official, who like many others in this article spoke on condition of anonymity. ‘It undercut the Administration's efforts to have a strategic partnership with the Chinese.’..." THE TRUTH OF ESPIONAGE WAS AN INCONVENIENT FACT "The New York Times reveals that throughout the Government, the response to the nuclear theft was plagued by delays, inaction and skepticism — even though senior intelligence officials regarded it as one of the most damaging spy cases in recent history." FBI DID NOT PROMPTLY INVESTIGATE "Initially the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not aggressively pursue the criminal investigation of lab theft, American officials said. Now, nearly three years later, no arrests have been made...." ENERGY DEPARTMENT STALLED "At the Energy Department, officials waited more than a year to act on the F.B.I.'s 1997 recommendations to improve security at the weapons laboratories and restrict the suspect's access to classified information, officials said." COVER-UP OF TREASON WAS ORDERED "The department's chief of intelligence, who raised the first alarm about the case in 1995, was ordered last year by senior officials not to tell Congress about his finding because critics might use them to attack the Administration's China policies, officials said. "And at the White House, senior aides to Mr. Clinton fostered a skeptical view of the evidence of Chinese espionage and its significance." CLINTON'S TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERS TO CHINESE REDS WERE INCREASED "White House officials, for example, said they determined on learning of it that the Chinese spying would have no bearing on the Administration's dealings with China, which included the increased exports of satellites and other militarily useful items. "They continued to advocate looser controls over sales of supercomputers and other equipment, even as intelligence analysts documented the scope of China's espionage...." A "COVER STORY" TO AID THE "COVER-UP" "In 1997, as Mr. Clinton prepared to meet with President Jiang Zemin of China, [senior National Security Council official Gary] Samore asked the Central Intelligence Agency for a quick alternative analysis of the issue. The agency found that China had stolen secrets from Los Alamos but differed with the Energy Department over the significance of the spying...." THE THREAT IS REAL "China's technical advance allows it to make small warheads for use in submarines, mobile missiles and long-range missiles with multiple warheads — the main elements of a modern nuclear force. "While White House officials question whether China will actually deploy a more advanced nuclear force soon, they acknowledge that Beijing has made plans to do so at some point...." AN "OPEN DOOR" POLICY FOR COMMUNIST SPIES "The Clinton Administration was also using increased access to the laboratories to support its policy of engagement with China, as had been done under previous, Republican Administrations. "In December 1996...China's Defense Minister, Gen. Chi Haotian, visited Sandia [National Laboratories] on a Pentagon-sponsored trip. Energy Department officials were not told in advance, and they later complained that General Chi and his delegation had not received proper clearances, officials said.... "By April 1996, the Energy Debarment decided to brief the White House. A group of senior officials including [Energy Department intelligence official Notra] Trulock [who first raised questions about the Los Alamos case] sat down with [Sandy] Berger, then President Clinton's deputy national security adviser, to tell him that China appeared to have acquired the W-88 and that a spy for China might still be at Los Alamos...." DERIDE, DIVERT, AND DELAY EXPOSING TREASON OUT OF SEASON "By June the F.B.I. formally opened a criminal investigation....When Energy officials asked at the end of 1996, they came away convinced that the bureau had assigned few resources to the case.... "After Federico Peña became Energy Secretary in early 1997, a previously approved counterintelligence program was quietly placed on the back burner for more than a year, officials said.... "‘In July 1997 Sandy [Berger] was briefed fully by the D.O.E. on China's full access to nuclear weapons designs, a much broader pattern,’ one White House official said....Congress was examining the role of foreign money in the 1996 campaign, as charges emerged that Beijing had secretly funneled money into Democratic coffers. "The Administration was also moving to strengthen its strategic and commercial links with China in 1997. President Clinton had already eased the commercial sale of supercomputers and satellite technology, and he wanted to cement a nuclear cooperation accord at the upcoming summit meeting, enabling American companies to sell China commercial nuclear reactors...." WHY DID THEY FAIL TO FIRE THE SPY? "[E]ven if the bureau could not build a case, Energy could still take some action against someone holding an American security clearance. [F.B.I. Director Louis] Freeh told Energy officials that there was no longer an investigative reason to allow the suspect to remain in his sensitive position, officials said. "But the suspect was allowed to keep his job and retain his security clearances for more than a year after the meeting with Mr. Freeh, according to American officials...." CONGRESS FAILED TO DO ITS DUTY — AND CLINTON REFUSED TO COOPERATE "The Administration explained aspects of the case to aides working for the House and Senate intelligence committees beginning in 1996. But few in Congress grasped the magnitude of what had happened. "In July 1998, the House Intelligence Committee requested an update on the case, officials said. Mr. Trulock forwarded the request in a memo to and in conversations with Elizabeth Moler, then Acting Energy Secretary. Ms. Moler ordered him not to brief the House panel for fear that the information would be used to attack the President's China policy, according to an account he later gave to Congressional investigators.... "Meanwhile, Mr. Trulock has been moved from head of Energy's intelligence office to its acting deputy. While [Secretary of Energy Bill] Richardson and other Energy officials praise his work and deny that he has been mistreated, some in Congress suspect that he has been demoted because he helped the Cox committee. "[Paul] Redmond, the C.I.A.'s former counter-intelligence chief, who made his name by unmasking the Soviet spy Aldrich Ames, says he has no doubts about the significance [of] Mr. Trulock's discoveries. "As he put it, ‘This was far more damaging to the national security than Aldrich Ames.’" IT'S AN OLD STORY The Times followed up in their Sunday edition (3/7/99, p. 11) with a report that "In December 1997, a 58-year-old physicist, Peter Lee, admitted in a plea bargain agreement that in 1985 he gave China classified information involving the use of lasers to simulate nuclear detonations. "Former officials of the Bush and Reagan Administrations say that, in retrospect, the Government was remarkably lax about lab security in the 1980's, even during the Reagan Administration's arms buildup. "‘It is quite clear now that things were far too casual,’ James R. Lilley, the Ambassador to China from 1989 to 1991 and then a senior Defense Department official, said in an interview today. Mr. Lilley, who for years served as one of the Central Intelligence Agency's top operatives in Asia, including in China, said: ‘This has been going on for a long, long time. We had Ministry of State [Security] defectors and other Chinese who became agents, and they made it clear that this was a top priority of their industrial and intelligence apparatus.’" WHY ISN'T TREASON GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT? William Safire writes (New York Times, 3/8/99, p. A19) that "Throughout the 1996 Clinton campaign for President, China's agents of influence had the run of the White House as they raised millions for the Clinton campaign. Chinese military intelligence officials were waved in without clearance. U.S. executives contributed megabucks as they lobbied for easier approval of sales of sensitive technology to Beijing." A CALCULATED, CALIBRATED COVER-UP AND STALL "In the midst of this — in April of 1996 — a Department of Energy official informed President Clinton's deputy national security adviser, Samuel Berger, (1) that China had probably stolen our secrets of making warheads small enough to enable long-range missiles to pack multiple nuclear punches, and (2) that the suspected spy was still at work in the Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico. "Mr. Berger, who sat in on most of the political meetings with Clinton's Asian fund-raisers, did nothing. The internal security division of the Department of Justice apparently did not ask a court for wiretap authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. At Reno Justice, investigating any Chinese penetration is a no-no. "Over one year later, after news stories and columns about Clinton's ‘Asian connection’ had stimulated law enforcement officials and a Senate committee to bestir themselves, F.B.I. Director Louis Freeh and Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet went to the office of Energy Secretary Federico Peña. ‘Louis and George read him the riot act,’ a meeting participant tells me, ‘about lax security at Los Alamos.’... "For months, the House select committee has been negotiating with the Clinton Secrecy Brigade to declassify most of its 700-page report. The White House hopes to delay clearance until the select committee goes out of business in April, when criticism of the espionage defeat and its Clinton cover-up could be diffused and buried." CLINTON AND CREW BETRAYED OUR COUNTRY "But Berger did not reckon with the journalistic enterprise of The Times's James Risen and Jeff Gerth. Their story on Saturday was headlined ‘China Stole Nuclear Secrets for Bombs, U.S. Aides Say’ and subheaded ‘Espionage Case at New Mexico Lab Is Said to Be Minimized by the White House.’ "They show how the theft of our nuclear secrets enabled China to leap a generation ahead with warheads that can be launched from under water....Now we're getting to the nub of it. Yanked to a complete turnabout on trade policy with China by the Riady family and other heavy campaign contributors in the satellite and computer businesses, Clinton didn't want Congress — empowered by law with oversight of intelligence — to know what the F.B.I., C.I.A. and D.O.E. suspected about China's spy in Los Alamos." WILL THE TRAITORS BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE? "Although aware of the dangerous spying, Clinton still insisted that regulation of the transfer of sensitive technology be controlled by his sell-'em-anything Commerce Department. "He delivered for China. Will Congress now protect the interests of the United States?"
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of January 31, 1999 COX COMMITTEE TAKES A DIVE ON U.S. BUSINESS'S TREASONOUS BETRAYAL OF U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY INTERESTS TO PROFIT FROM TRADE WITH RED CHINA You'll have to ask Congressman Chris Cox (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House of Representatives China Commission, why no one is being held accountable for the turnover of American defense assets and military secrets to the People's Liberation Army of Communist China. Perhaps it's because both the Bush and Clinton administrations each are guilty of facilitating such transfers. Perhaps it's because both Republicans and Democrats have benefited from campaign contributions by U.S. corporations doing business with Red China.
Perhaps there's some other reason about which it would possibly be unfair to speculate.
"TUT-TUT" FOR TREASON ISN'T ENOUGH
But the reality is that Mr. Cox and his colleagues have issued a largely irrelevant "tut-tut", when, in fact, a few treason trials would seem to be more appropriate.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal (2/2/99, p. A6), a "special House committee on high-technology trade with China is calling for tighter controls on exports of supercomputers, greater security at U.S. nuclear weapons labs and stricter monitoring of foreign investment in defense-related industries.
"The classified committee report, according to U.S. officials, details a 20-year effort by China through trade and espionage to acquire U.S. nuclear secrets and other sensitive technologies. Even so, the committee's recommendations are far less sweeping than many high-tech companies feared when the panel, whose chairman is Republican Christopher Cox of California, began its work last year...."
BIPARTISAN SUPPORT REQUIRED LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR RECOMMENDATIONS
"Redacted from the recommendations was information on China's acquisition from U.S. weapons labs of sensitive nuclear-design information, including critical design secrets for the most modern U.S. warhead.
"The tone of the bipartisan findings is remarkably nonaccusatory — in large part because some of the worst violations occurred long before President Clinton took office and under both Democratic and Republican administrations."
WANTED: SHERLOCK HOLMES TO REPLACE INSPECTOR CLOUSEAU
"Congress seized on concerns about China acquiring U.S. technology for military purposes following reports that two U.S. satellite makers — Loral Space & Communications Co. and Hughes Electronics Corp. — may have helped China improve its missiles' reliability in helping analyze the explosion of two rockets carrying U.S. satellites. Initially, lawmakers focused on whether the Clinton administration relaxed scrutiny of exports to China as a result of campaign contributions, but the Cox committee investigation apparently found little evidence of that."
COX & CO. SUBMIT TO CORPORATE BOSSES WHO PROFIT FROM TRADING WITH THE ENEMY
"The panel's report largely refrains from specific calls for new procedures for government licensing of sensitive technologies with military uses, such as machine tools and encryption software. Indeed, the lawmakers seem at times to go out of their way to reassure U.S. business that, despite calls for tougher scrutiny of high-tech sales, they don't favor more cumbersome licensing procedures that could cost sales.
"The report falls back on calling for strengthening of international agreements aimed at controlling the export of weapons and militarily sensitive technology."
A LIMP-WRISTED SLAP IS THE BEST THEY COULD DO
"In one of its toughest recommendations, the report calls for reduction or a cutoff in sales of high-speed computers to China if Beijing refuses to accept surprise inspections to verify the computers' end users."
Excerpted from Howard Phillips Issues & Strategy Bulletin of December 15, 1998 TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER TO RED CHINA IS TREASON The Wall Street Journal (11/27/98, p. A12) reports that "Michael Maloof is convinced China's military is grabbing sophisticated U.S. technology. His bosses at the Pentagon insist he is crying wolf...." BEIJING BUILDUP IS MAJOR THREAT TO U.S. DEFENSES "He considers Beijing's modernizing armed forces the U.S. military's next major threat. But administration officials portray the 55-year-old career Defense Department aide as a Cold War throwback who can't reconcile himself to the inevitable easing of export controls." HUGHES ELECTRONICS KNEW WHAT IT WAS DOING — AND SO DID CLINTONISTAS "Mr. Maloof, a manager in the Pentagon's Defense Technology Security Administration since 1986....is becoming a major headache for Hughes Electronics Corp., which he accuses of knowingly assisting the People's Liberation Army... "In 1993, the Clinton administration eased licensing requirements for products — such as high-speed computers, telecommunications equipment and machine tools...." WHICH SHOULD COME FIRST: COMMERCE OR DEFENSE? "The export control system is now dominated by Commerce Department officials....For years, the DTSA was the influential voice of the Defense Department in export policy decisions. Now longtime staffers say their role in the process has been downgraded....The Pentagon even changed the agency's name recently to the Technology Security Directorate."