LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic Universe-Document

LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic

May 26, 1999, Wednesday, FIRST EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A

LENGTH: 499 words

HEADLINE: Report: Spy damage severe Chinese nuke 'theft continuing'

BYLINE: Peter Eisler

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:
WASHINGTON -- China used spies, business contacts and academic
exchanges to obtain U.S. nuclear weapons secrets as well as the
missile and computer expertise to make use of them, a congressional
report says.

The long-awaited 900-page report released Tuesday says that over
several decades China has stolen nuclear secrets and is using
them to greatly enhance its next generation of warheads. Some
of those weapons could be deployed by 2002.
Much of the information came from spies at U.S. nuclear weapons
labs, the report says, and "such thefts almost certainly continue."

Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., who chaired the special House
committee that produced the report, said the inquiry also showed
that at least two U.S. satellite firms skirted legal restrictions
by giving China rocket technology that could enhance its missiles'
ability to deliver new warheads.

Moreover, China has exploited lax U.S. export controls to purchase
computers that could help with everything from weapons design
and testing to the development of aircraft and submarines, Cox
said.

Taken together, China's thefts and purchases of U.S. weapons technology
amount to "one of the worst counterintelligence failures in (U.S.)
history," said the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Norman Dicks
of Washington.

China denies wrongdoing.

President Clinton said the administration is moving swiftly to
implement the "overwhelming majority" of the Cox panel's 38
recommendations, such as improving security at the Department
of Energy's nuclear weapons labs and strengthening controls over
commercial exports of computer and missile technology.

But Clinton warned against using the report to attack his policy
of engagement with China. That policy, he said, has "produced
benefits for our national security," including China's signing
of a nuclear test ban treaty and its vow to clamp down on military
equipment sales to rogue states.

Still, the report is likely to raise new concerns.

By stealing U.S. technology, it says, China has leaped "from
1950s-era strategic nuclear capabilities to weapons (that) took
the United States decades of effort" to develop.

Other findings:

* China has stolen secret information on at least seven
U.S. nuclear warheads, including its most advanced, the miniaturized
W-88 used in the multiple-warhead, submarine-launched Trident
missile.

* China owns or has ties to about 3,000 companies operating
in the USA and uses many of them as "fronts" to provide cover
for spies and purchase sensitive technology, including supercomputers.

* China often requires scientists and students on U.S.
academic exchanges to gather weapons data from both classified
and open sources.

Clinton rejected some lawmakers' demands that he fire Attorney
General Janet Reno and national security adviser Sandy Berger
because of accusations that they responded too slowly after learning
in 1995 of suspicions of Chinese spying.

LOAD-DATE: May 26, 1999