Related Articles and Links:
- Campaign Finance Reform
- related articles
- Reform Party In The News
- related articles
- Regarding China
- related articles
- Free Trade And The Corporations
- related atricles
- Other Issues
- related atricles
- Links to important websites
- links
- back to home page
-
|
China Buying U.S. Computers, Raising Fears of Enhanced Nuclear Weapons
By JEFF GERTH
WASHINGTON -- Since President Clinton deregulated the export of
computers in 1995, China has gone on a shopping spree, buying 46
American-made supercomputers and many more that are nearly as
powerful, according to government officials.
The newly acquired computers could be used by the Chinese to design
more efficient or lighter nuclear warheads that could be put on
missiles capable of reaching the United States, American intelligence
officials and nuclear experts said.
Several officials said they have suspicions -- but no direct
evidence -- that China is using the powerful computers for this
purpose.
Clinton administration officials who defend the 1995 policy said
they believe that the civilian purchasers in China are making sure
the equipment is not diverted to military uses.
Gary Samore, the senior director for nonproliferation and export
control at the National Security Council, said: "We don't have any
information that these computers are being used by the Chinese for
military purposes, including nuclear weapons."
At the same time, Samore said, there were no formal military or
intelligence investigations of that question. The government's
knowledge, he said, was drawn largely from the computer companies.
There are disagreements among American officials about the
importance of the Chinese purchases of supercomputers. But Gary
Milhollin, a nuclear expert in the private sector, said of the 46
supercomputers: "For the first time these give China access to a
larger number of computers in this range, and that's a big jump for
the Chinese."
The supercomputers sold to China would allow the country to
significantly improve its nuclear weapons by processing huge amounts
of data from very small underground nuclear weapons tests. These
tests are currently banned by international treaty but the high-
performance computers would allow the Chinese to conduct weapons
tests with explosions so small that they would be undetectable by
outsiders, said American government officials who requested anonymity.
Under the 1995 policy, most supercomputers sold for civilian
purposes do not need to be licensed for export by the federal
government. Exporters consequently cannot be required to track how
they are used.
The disclosure earlier this year that American companies had sold
supercomputers to two Russian nuclear facilities prompted Congress to
ask for an accounting of how many had been sold to other countries.
At the time, the Republican chairman and the ranking Democrat on
the House National Security Committee asked the president to "refrain
from further" deregulation of supercomputer exports and to reassess
the national security risks of allowing exporters to decide who may
buy supercomputers.
"We think many of the supercomputers sold to China are being
integrated into the military weapons development area in a way that
is going to make their weapons more sophisticated and lethal and this
could jeopardize our own national security interests," said Sen. Thad
Cochran, R-Miss., chairman of a Senate subcommittee overseeing the
issue.
Clinton administration officials said on Monday they were satisfied
with deregulation. They argued that it would be nearly impossible for
the United States to effectively prevent the Chinese from obtaining
these computers from other sources.
The Commerce Department has been investigating last year's sale by
Silicon Graphics of a supercomputer that performs almost 6 billion
operations per second, operating at 10 times the speed of the fastest
personal computer, to a Chinese science academy. The company says the
buyer is a benign civilian institution, but according to nuclear
experts, the academy has other functions, including helping China
develop long range missiles. The Justice Department is also
investigating another Silicon Graphics supercomputer sale in 1996, to
a Russian research institute that also serves as a nuclear weapons
laboratory, the officials also said.
"One reason I ran for president was to tailor export controls to
the realities of a post-Cold War world," Clinton wrote in a September
1993 letter to Edward McCracken, the chief executive officer of
Silicon Graphics.
In his 1992 campaign, Clinton received important political support
from executives of high-technology companies, including McCracken.
Shortly after the president's 1993 letter, the administration took
its first steps toward decontrol. In October 1995, Clinton announced
that he would relax export controls on all but the most powerful
supercomputers to help American companies compete abroad, saying the
system would "adjust to the global spread of technology while
preserving our vital national security interests."
But by eliminating the need for licenses on most computer exports,
the president shifted some national security responsibilities --
avoiding the misuse of sensitive technology -- from the government to
the computer industry.
The undersecretary of commerce for export administration, William
Reinsch, said the department was investigating some cases of
unlicensed export of supercomputers to China and Russia, which could
uncover more information about how the computers are being used. But
he insisted the relaxation of controls was a realistic solution since
rapid changes in the flexibility and availability of computer
technology make it easy for purchasers to circumvent controls.
"Where do you draw the line to be absolutely certain that no one in
China has a supercomputer? The only way is to insist on validated
licenses on all computers and then deny them," Reinsch said.
Another obstacle was thrown up when diplomatic and intelligence
officials, wanting to protect their sources, refused to allow the
Commerce Department to publish a list of buyers suspected of nuclear
activity, according to Reinsch. Then earlier this year, 16 months
after the White House promised that the Commerce Department would
keep manufacturers informed of nuclear proliferation risks, the
department publicly disclosed one name of a suspected nuclear
facility -- an Israeli university.
Reinsch says more names will be disclosed soon, a move industry
officials say they favor.
Robert Rarog, a spokesman for Digital Equipment Corp., which has
sold supercomputers to China, said his company feels the deregulation
"basically works" but that "the government has to step up to the
plate" and disclose questionable buyers "to level the playing field
for U.S. companies" who compete with foreign manufacturers that may
be less diligent.
In early 1996, government nuclear experts asked the Commerce
Department to provide supercomputer manufacturers with a list of
sensitive nuclear sites in Russia and China to prevent misuse of
their technology, but the administration turned down the request,
according to Milhollin, the director of the Wisconsin Project on
Nuclear Arms Control. A Department of Energy spokesman confirmed
Milhollin's account.
In an interview, Milhollin compared the relaxation of export
controls to the 1980s deregulation of the savings and loan industry.
"The decision to decontrol supercomputers, without adequate
safeguards was the equivalent to the deregulation of the savings and
loans -- the industry benefited but the public welfare and security
was sacrificed."
A Senate subcommittee headed by Cochran will hold a hearing on the
deregulation issue on Wednesday.
Copyright 1997 The New York Times
THE SUPERCOMPUTERS OF COMMUNIST CHINA
by Gene Crocker, Ph.D.
"I would not have been re-elected without the campaign contributions."
President W.J. Clinton
"Be careful of what you wish, you may get it." Chinese Proverb
The ELINT (intelligence gathering) Trawler Fleet of Communist China
flies the flag of the China Ocean Shipping Company (Cosco). They gather
information by monitoring US military communications and our weather
conditions and relay that information back to PLA intelligence. After
the US communications are decrypted, some of the information is used by
their submarines who prowl the US coastline. In 1996, when Communist
China threatened to nuke Los Angeles, I assumed that it would be a
missile from one of these submarines. I was wrong, those missiles can
come from the Chinese Communist mainland and be delivered accurately to
your doorstep~because of the actions of American multinational
corporations and President Clinton.
Communist China obtains US top secrets in a number of ways. We
give it to them. There are 40,000 to 50,000 chinese communist students
and scholars at Universities and Research Centers in the US. They steal
it. There are an estimated 1000 US businesses that are fronts for the
spies of Communist China. And they buy it. When the PLA want something
that is restricted, they have representatives from a Chinese Communist
Corporation go to the manufacturer and tell them they want to buy their
supercomputers, or gallium arsenide computer chips or whatever high tech
"controlled" item they want. The business then makes a large campaign
contribution(s) to friendly but needy US politicians and somehow the
laws for national security get "relaxed".
Certain businesses in Silicon Valley, like Silicon Graphics and
Hewlett Packard, were big financial contributors to Clinton's
presidential campaigns. They make supercomputers and they wanted the
export restrictions on them "relaxed". Supercomputers are not generally
used in business. But they are absolutely invaluable in two areas,
nuclear weapons research and in weather modeling for intercontinental
missiles. Modern nuclear weapons designed on supercomputers will work
perfectly without testing. It is great for the environment. It is even
better for countries like Communist China who want to keep their nuclear
weapons program covert. Weather modeling is used to predict the weather
conditions in target areas so that the missile guidance systems can make
the necessary weather adjustments.
During Clinton's administration, Communist China has bought and
shipped 46 supercomputers from Silicon Graphics, Hewlett Packard, Sun
Microsystems and other US manufacturers. William Reinsch, Undersecretary
of Clinton's Commerce Department (Export Administration) confirmed the
sales and shipping of these supercomputers and stated that the Dept. of
Commerce has no idea of their present location in Communist China, in his
testimony at the House National Security Subcommittee on April 15, 1997.
Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are those small satellite
receivers used in boats and cars and military vehicles for guidance and
navigation purposes. The highly accurate versions used in the Gulf War
were designed to guide cruise and other missiles. Donald Beale,
President of Rockwell International announced in November 1996 that it
has formed a join venture with Shanghai Avionics Corporation and the
Shanghai Broadcast Equipment Factory to build GPS systems in Communist
China. "We see China (Communist) as a driver in our plans to double the
size of business in Asia Pacific" said Beale. The restrictions on GPS
have been "relaxed" by Clinton's Commerce Department during his first
term of office.
We elect unprincipled politicians whose main drive is for continued
power. The CEO's of high tech multinational corporations have given
massive campaign contributions to those politicians; the net effect is
to almost destroy our national security. All these high tech companies
wanted was a little "relaxing" of the national security export
restrictions, so they could make a buck. They got what they wanted.
What did we get? What will we get from Communist China?
Dr. Crocker has a Ph.D. in Physics, a M.S.in Nuclear Engineering, a B.S.
in Civil Engineering and a B.A. in Philosophy. His articles include
"Treason at Long Beach", "The Manchurean President", and "Who Are You
Calling Hero".
|