U.S. to Lift Ban on Satellite Tech Sales to China

The Clinton Administration agreed Tuesday to lift year-old sanctions restricting the sale of U.S. satellite technology to China after obtaining a renewed, more explicit commitment from Beijing to stop exporting dangerous missiles.

The agreement, announced at the end of a visit to Washington by Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, clears the way for U.S. companies, including Hughes Aircraft Co., to sell hundreds of millions of dollars in satellites and related technology to China.

If it is carried out, the agreement will also settle what has been, over the past six years, one of the most contentious issues between Washington and Beijing: China’s efforts to export to Middle Eastern countries its advanced, solid-fuel M-9 and M-11 missiles, which are more accurate and more mobile than the Scuds used by Iraq in the Persian Gulf War.

Clinton Administration officials were exultant. “This is a global and verifiable ban (on export of M-11 missiles),” said one senior Administration official. Administration officials pointed out that the prohibition China signed for the M-11 missiles goes beyond the requirements of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)--the international accord that severely restricts the export of missiles but permits some limited exceptions.

In some respects, however, the new agreement also represents a retreat from the position the Clinton Administration took a year ago. Senior U.S. officials said then they would not lift the sanctions on satellite exports to China until Beijing agreed to adhere to the MTCR--including all its rules, updates and revisions, which cover a wide variety of technology beyond the M-11 missile exports.

Yet in the end, the Administration, which recently won Russia’s agreement to adhere to the missile accord, failed to win a similar pledge from China on the broader treaty. Instead, the two nations agreed Tuesday to hold “in-depth discussions” on having China adhere to the overall missile accord.

“The lifting of the sanctions is a welcome development,” Hughes Aircraft Co. Chairman C. Michael Armstrong said in a written statement Tuesday night. “It will enable Hughes and American industry to do more business with China. This is a positive step as we revise our export policies to enhance trade.”

Administration officials contended that the new agreement was not motivated by a desire to help U.S. companies.

“This is not an economic decision,” said one senior Administration official. “This is a non-proliferation decision.”

America’s efforts to stop the sale of Chinese M-9 and M-11 missiles dates to 1988, when it was reported that Beijing had concluded deals to sell the systems to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya.

Then-Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci won some vague assurances from China about limiting sales of the missiles on a trip to Beijing in 1988, and in return agreed to clear the way for the sale of American satellite technology to China. In 1989, then-National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft won new promises not to sell missiles in the Middle East. But China’s efforts to export apparently continued and it began moving to sell M-11 missiles to Pakistan.

In November, 1991, the George Bush Administration finally won what it felt was a solid commitment by China to abide by the MTCR and to refrain from selling the missiles to Pakistan. This pledge, hastily worked out at the end of a testy visit to Beijing by Secretary of State James A. Baker III, took the form of an oral pledge and a subsequent letter.

The MTCR applies only to missiles with a range of 300 kilometers (about 180 miles) and a payload, or weight, of 500 kilograms (1100 pounds).

U.S. officials subsequently discovered that, despite its assurances to the Bush Administration, China was selling components of the M-11 missiles to Pakistan. Chinese officials maintained that this missile was not covered by the MTCR, because its range and payload were below the requirements of the accord. U.S. officials insisted the missile had greater capabilities than China maintained.

The accord that Secretary of State Warren Christopher signed with Qian on Tuesday contains new language apparently closing this loophole. Any missile is covered so long as it has enough energy to travel the required 180-mile distance or deliver the 1,100-pound payload, even if China claimed it had been advertised or tested at lower standards.

Administration officials also said China’s new promise was better than the ones obtained by previous Administrations because it took the form of a signed, written agreement rather than an oral pledge or letter.

Qian agreed. Asked at a news conference how China’s new promise differs from earlier ones, Qian replied: “This is the first time China and the United States have recorded and issued a written understanding. . . . This is a new form (of agreement).”

The Clinton Administration had imposed the satellite sanctions on China in August, 1993. At the time, U.S. officials estimated that they would block the sale of about $400 million to $500 million a year in American exports to China over the two-year period of the sanctions. The sanctions blocked the pending sale of at least seven satellites to China, including two by Los Angeles-based Hughes.

Those sanctions outraged some executives of U.S. high-tech industries, including Armstrong, who said in one speech: “It escapes me what effect our laying off 4,000 to 5,000 more people in California and shifting the export business to Europe has on the Chinese.”

Last winter, the Administration eased the impact of the sanctions by deciding that some satellites could be sold to China if they do not include sensitive military technology. The two Hughes systems were then approved for sale, along with several other items of satellite technology.

State Department officials said the new agreement opens the way again for American companies to sell new systems to China by reapplying to the State Department for permission.

Clinton Administration officials also announced that China had agreed to some new discussions and exchanges with the United States in the field of human rights.

Chinese officials agreed to broader exchanges of lawyers and other legal personnel, Administration officials said. China also agreed to resume talks that were suspended earlier this year on its jamming of Voice of America broadcasts and on permitting the International Committee of the Red Cross to gain access to Chinese prisons.