A space cooperation agreement with China drawn up by the Clinton administration to be signed at the June summit with China, permits the transfer of technology that could be used to enhance China's nuclear missiles, Bill Gertz reports in the Washington Times. The pact would be signed by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the State Science and Technology Commission of China (SSTCC), a primary developer of weapons-related technology. The SSTCC was recently renamed the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The SSTCC concluded a 10-year military technology sharing agreement with Iran in 1990. "Under the [Clinton] agreement," an aide warns, "American space technology would pass automatically to the Iranian missile program." A 1996 CIA report identified China as "the most significant supplier of weapons-of mass-destruction good and technology to foreign countries."

The draft "memorandum of understanding" (MOU), says NASA and the SSTC "will exchange scientific data freely and without restriction" except for corporate information not under government control. Henry Sokolski, director of the Non-proliferation Policy Education Center, says that although the pact appears to be an effort by the administration to coax the Chinese to halt missile sales to rogue states, it is unlikely to prevent the Chinese from selling missile and other technology abroad.

China's first satellite ground station, built in 1997 on Tarawa in the equatorial South Pacific island nation of Kiribati has significant implications in China's military modernization, the Far Eastern Economic Review reports. "This is going to enhance the overall efficiency of their space program, including military," says Prof. Desmond Ball at the Strategic and Defense Studies Center at Australian National University. Although China does not admit that any of its 40 operational weather, communications and imaging satellites are for military work, international experts have fully documented that most are for military work. "A large portion of their environmental satellites are used by the military and no one else," Ball says.

The March issue of Hong Kong-based Wide Angle magazine, published in association with China's defense-industry, carried a lengthy article on China's military satellites. "In a crisis in the Taiwan Strait, China's reconnaissance satellites will know the exact location of U.S. aircraft carriers... as well as Taiwan's destroyers and frigates. If the satellites are used to coordinate a saturated strike by long-range anti-ship missiles and submarines, neither the U.S. nor the Taiwan naval forces could defend themselves."

A new CIA report, obtained by the Washington Times, states that 13 of China's 18 long range strategic missiles have warheads - including CSS-4 missiles with a range of 8,000 miles - aimed at United States cities. Other missiles are aimed at U.S. forces in the Pacific. The intelligence document was sent to top U.S. policy makers in advance of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's current visit to China. U.S. officials claim that contrary to views of senior Clinton administration officials, China views the United States as its major strategic adversary.

Copyright © 2001, American Foreign Policy Council.
All Rights Reserved.