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Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
June 28, 1999, Monday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 16; Column 1; Editorial Desk
LENGTH: 412 words
HEADLINE: Realistic Rules on Computer Exports
BODY:
There are good reasons for restricting American exports of high-performance
computers to countries that might put them to dangerous military use. Computing
power is increasingly vital to the production of advanced nuclear and
conventional weapons and missiles. Last month's Cox Committee report details
the potential dangers to national security from overly permissive
computer export rules.
But in designing
export-control rules, Washington must also recognize that considerable
computer power is now widely and cheaply available from desktop and laptop personal
computers. Obsolete definitions of high performance make a mockery of export
restrictions by controlling the sale of mass-production computers easily
available to buyers almost anywhere in the world.
President Clinton is now considering a significant increase in the power of
computers that can be exported to some 100 countries across Eastern Europe and
the third world. Computers that powerful should not be freely exported to
China. But a far more modest increase in the cutoff for China and other
militarily sensitive countries, to take effect six months from now, would also
make sense.
The Government measures computing power in units called M.T.O.P.S., which
stands for millions of theoretical operations per second. Washington must now
be notified of any export to countries like China of computers rated 2,000
M.T.O.P.S. or higher. By next year, personal computers rated above 2,000 are
likely to be available for less than $3,000 at retail malls. It is futile to
restrict exports of such machines.
The right response to the advance of
technology is not to give up on export controls, but to keep them up to date.
Even with the rapid advances in personal computers, the best of them have only
about one-thousandth of the computing power of the supercomputers now used in
America's weapons labs. There is plenty of room to set realistic thresholds and
still protect advanced computer technology.
Mr. Clinton should lift all restrictions on exports to China of computers rated
below 7,000 M.T.O.P.S. Any change would be subject to Congressional review and
take six months to go into effect, so Mr. Clinton should begin the process
right away. The Cox Commission report rightly heightened Administration and
Congressional sensitivity to the dangers of selling militarily useful
technology to China. But the place to draw the line is not at the level of next
year's personal computers.
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LOAD-DATE: June 28, 1999