During the Clinton administration, Slick Willy and Co. allowed some very sensitive missile guidance technology to get in the hands of the Chinese. It dramatically increased the accuracy of their missiles.
Chinese General Shen Rongjun led the penetration of U.S. missile and space technology during the Clinton administration. The 2002 State Department letter makes it clear that they believe Gen. Shen led the successful penetration of the Clinton administration and Hughes.
In 1994, Gen. Shen was second in command of a Chinese army unit known as COSTIND, or the Commission On Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. Shen, and his COSTIND operatives in front companies, secured a wide range of advanced missile and space technology from Hughes after a 1994 meeting with Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.
Commerce documents obtained using the Freedom of Information Act show that Brown met with Gen. Shen in 1994 during a trade trip to Beijing. President Clinton personally authorized the meeting between the Chinese general and Brown.
Before moving to Commerce, Brown headed the Democratic National Committee. The Federal Election Commission fined the DNC in 2002 for “knowingly and willingly” accepting donations from Chinese army sources.
Gen. Shen did obtain help from the White House by pressuring Hughes with satellite contracts. Hughes CEO Michael Armstrong wrote President Clinton in 1993 threatening to pull support for Clinton if he did not allow the space technology transfers to China. In 1994, Clinton approved a waiver for Hughes to transfer advanced satellite encryption systems to China.
According to a Sept. 20, 1995, memorandum, Hughes regarded Gen. Shen Rongjun as “the most important Chinese space official.”
The Chinese army penetration of Hughes was so successful that Gen. Shen managed to get his son, Shen Jun, a job at Hughes as the lead software engineer for all Chinese satellites. According to Hughes, Shen Jun had access to “proprietary” satellite source code.
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The satellite and missile technology obtained from Hughes by the Chinese army is critical for the design and manufacture of missile nose cones and electronic missile control systems. The technology clearly helped the Chinese army field a new generation of ICBMS, including the Dong Feng 31 missile, which can drop three nuclear warheads on any city in the U.S.
In order for this to happne, Bill Clinton had to override his Secretary of State to allow the Commerce Department “full authority to control satellite exports.” Warren Christopher had reservations, saying “’significant’ military and intelligence capabilities could be lost.”
It was.
The 1999 Defense Authorization Act contained a provision that required “the president notify Congress whether a transfer of missile and space technology to China would harm the U.S. space-launch industry or help China’s missile programs.”
President Obama recently shifted authority for approving sales to China of missile and space technology from the White House to the Commerce Department — a move critics say will loosen export controls and potentially benefit Chinese missile development.
The president issued a little-noticed “presidential determination” Sept. 29 that delegated authority for determining whether missile and space exports should be approved for China to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.
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Edward Timperlake, a Pentagon technology-security official during the George W. Bush administration, said he agrees that the new policy likely will loosen export controls on dual-use technology that could be used to boost China’s large-scale missile program.
China’s military recently displayed new long-range and cruise missiles during a military parade in Beijing marking the 60th anniversary of communist rule.
“It looks like we’re going to have Loral-Hughes part two,” Mr. Timperlake said of the policy shift.
Hat Tip: The Jawa Report
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So they ‘fine’ the parties for accepting illegal donations? I wonder what they’ll do with all the fraud in 2008. My guess: nothing.
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The findings of the cox report were largely discredited. The “dramatic improvement” of which you speak refers to a fax by a senior VP at Loral merely confirming the Chinese Scientists’ own findings that a faulty solder on their rocket was responsible for a previous launch failure. Any additional information was non-technical and had mostly to do with quality assurance practices to ensure that subsequent launches of Loral’s satellite equipment might not end so catastrophically.
That a similar guidance system was used in a missile test three years later should neither be surprising, nor should it be indicative that this technology was somehow misbegotten through espionage.
If you want to bash China and spread fear, do so in a rational manner. Criticize their human rights abuses and the strangehold they have over America’s import market. Criticize their refusal to let their currency appreciate against the dollar or their grab for resources in Africa. There’s plenty of places to fault China and to fault Obama. I suggest you pick a topic that you can support with nonpartisan data.
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