U.S. Corporations Turn China into Threat

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Dec 20, 1999 | by Kenneth Timmerman

Communist China once again has succeeded at making U.S. appeasement appear like Chinese concessions, this time in the terms of agreement for China's admission into the World Trade Organization, or WTO. American business leaders and consumers would be advised to take a closer look at how China has exploited U.S. trade concessions in the past before they leap on the bandwagon of this latest agreement. In August, when it tested the DF-31, a new long-range intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, Beijing revealed just how successful free trade with American defense and high-tech firms has been -- not in expanding U.S. exports, but in advancing China's own strategic interests.

The Chinese announced the successful test, an unusual move made all the more brazen by the fact that the American public still was digesting charges that the People's Republic of China, or PRC, has been spying on U.S. nuclear-weapons labs as revealed in the bipartisan Cox committee report. But according to a Chinese scientist who recently defected from the PRC and now lives in the United States, the Chinese did not need to spy at all. Much of what they needed in the way of specialized military equipment and technology was purchased on the open market in the United States with help and approval from Clinton administration regulators.

Some experts believe the missile will be topped with a specially designed nose cone that will give China the ability to launch multiple nuclear warheads deep into the American heartland. Despite the fact that China developed the DF-31 with U.S. targets in mind, an investigation I conducted for Reader's Digest has discovered that both the missile as well as the warhead dispenser were developed with assistance from the U.S.-based companies -- and apparently, with the approval of the U.S. government.

Interviews with company officials and Clinton-administration regulators showed that those sales were monitored and approved by the U.S. government.

When the roadmobile DF-31 is deployed sometime in the next few years, it will give China the ability to launch multiple nuclear warheads deep into the American heartland for the first time, from launchers that will be virtually immune from detection.

"Our factory was in trouble before I started working there," the Chinese scientist told me during the last six months. "Then we got a major contract from Motorola, and things took off." The sudden influx of hard currency "financed the DF-31 program," he said, as well as another, shorter-range missile, the DF-21, which will be used to target Japan.

The scientist worked at the Hexi Machinery and Chemical Co. in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, a once-independent state annexed by Communist China in 1949. In China, the plant is known as the 41st Research Institute, a branch of the 4th Academy of the state-owned China Aerospace Corp., which has built all of China's strategic rockets as well as its Long March space-launch vehicles.

On April 28, 1993, Motorola signed a contract with China Great Wall Industries Corp., or CGWIC, the marketing department of China Aerospace, to launch 12 of its Iridium global-communication satellites. As part of the contract the Chinese agreed to develop a "smart dispenser" allowing them to launch several satellites from a single rocket. Earlier Chinese attempts to develop such a dispenser had failed.

But according to the defector, help from U.S. engineers changed all that: "Our U.S. partners gave us the specifications and technical assistance to produce the dispenser," he said, adding that engineers from Hexi traveled to Lockheed and Motorola facilities in the United States to exchange data and tweak their design. The exchanges caught the eye of U.S. intelligence analysts who were alarmed at the capabilities being transferred to an agency responsible for designing Chinese ICBMs. A Dec. 10, 1996, topsecret report from the National Air Intelligence Center, obtained by Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz, called the Chinese satellite dispenser a "technology bridge" that, with few modifications, would allow the Chinese to launch multiple nuclear warheads from their missiles. Despite these reservations, the Clinton administration allowed Motorola to pursue its cooperation with the Chinese.

The Chinese first demonstrated the dispenser in September 1997, successfully lofting two test satellites into orbit. Just two months later commercial launches began.

Lockheed developed and built the dispenser system used by Motorola to deliver Iridium satellites from U.S. rockets. A company spokesman said that Lockheed had no direct dealings with the Chinese on the project, since all the licenses were held by Motorola.

Motorola says the licenses it obtained from the Clinton administration allowed it to share data with the Chinese to ensure that the dispenser system worked.

"This technology is directly applicable to China's efforts to develop missiles with multiple independently targetable warheads," charges Henry Sokolski, a former deputy secretary at the Department of Defense. "It is a capability the Chinese have been unable to master on their own."