In the wake of Congressional findings that commercial satellite deals with China have threatened U.S. national security, the Clinton administration has rejected a $450 million Hughes satellite deal with China, the New York Times reports. The Pentagon and State Department overruled the Commerce Department to deny permission for the deal, between Hughes and the Chinese-Singaporean Asia-Pacific Mobile Telecommunications Company, due to fears that sensitive U.S. military-related technology would be obtained by the PLA.

State Department concerns about Hughes, the Times adds, include a 1995 tutorial on rocket launching given to Chinese scientists by Hughes engineers, now the subject of a criminal inquiry. Another incident involves Hughes' hiring of the son of the Chinese General who overseas the communist country's military satellite program. The decision revokes President Clinton's quiet approval of the sale two and a half years ago. The telephone network would have reached from China to Indonesia, and then across the Indian Ocean as far as Pakistan. Top officials of the consortium included senior officers of the People Liberation Army, who also serve in posts with China Satellite Launch and Tracking Control Corporation.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army [PLA] is developing increasingly sophisticated means to combat U.S. forces where they are most vulnerable, particularly in techno-information warfare, reports Barbara Opall-Rome in Defense News. The term "acupuncture warfare," surfaced in a 1997 PLA Defense University publication, On Commanding Warfighting Under High-Tech Conditions, where it was described as, "Paralyzing the enemy by attacking the weak link of his [command, control, communications and information] as if hitting his acupuncture point in kung fu combat."

At U.S. Pacific Command [CINCPAC] Headquarters, officials acknowledged the growing threat of PLA info-war, anti-satellite weaponry, ballistic and cruise missiles. For more than a year, U.S. and Asian experts state, the PLA has been simulating computer virus attacks in miliary exercises. In addition, a new Chinese satellite tracking and control station on the pacific island of Tarawa, midway between China and the U.S. mainland, and some 500 miles south of the U.S. Kwajalein missile test range in the Marshall Islands, allows the PLA to track U.S. Naval fleet operations. The PLA could employ radio jamming or high-powered microwave transmitters on Tarawa to disable U.S. satellites which are essential for command and control of fleet and anti-ballistic missile operations. In the future, Defense News adds, the Tarawa site could be used to deploy a ground-based laser which could disable U.S. military and communication satellites.

Pentagon officials say that "acupuncture" or "assymetrical" warfare is the Chinese adaptation to the Pentagon's high-tech-oriented Revolution in Military Affairs. And out-going CINCPAC Commander, Admiral Joseph Preuher sees Chinese assymetrical concepts written in the 5th Century B.C. by Sun Tzu, China's preeminent military strategist. "The Chinese have seen our forces," says Preuher [ironically, an advocate of U.S.-China military exchanges], "and they know we're quite strong, so they look for ways to prevail upon a stronger opponent through assymetrical means."

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