Satellite Exports Getting Another Look
By a nearly unanimous vote, the House set up a special panel Thursday with a $2.5-million budget to investigate whether campaign contributions affected President Clinton’s decisions to allow technological exports to China and whether China used the U.S. know-how to improve its nuclear ballistic missiles.
“There is no more important question for the committee than the one on which it will begin: Has the reliability or accuracy of nuclear missiles of the People’s Republic of China been enhanced, and, if so, how has it happened?” said Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), who heads the panel.
The White House has come under fire for having approved the transfer of satellite technology to China, particularly a request this year by Loral Space & Communications Ltd. to mount a civilian commercial satellite on a Chinese rocket. Fueling the suspicions of improper political influence are the more than $600,000 in contributions to the Democratic Party in 1996 by Bernard L. Schwarz, Loral’s chairman and the largest individual giver to the Democrats in that election cycle.
Also heightening concern about Clinton’s more liberal transfer policy are recent revelations that Chinese army units have been relying on American-made civilian-use satellites to communicate among each other.
Setting the inquiry in motion were last month’s disclosures that Torrance entrepreneur Johnny Chien Chuen Chung had told federal prosecutors that China’s People’s Liberation Army had provided some of the $100,000 that Chung donated to the Democrats in recent years.
“The bottom line is our technology store is open and the Chinese have been buying,” said Rules Committee Chairman Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-N.Y.). “We have to find out how much damage has been done to our country.”
Democrats agreed that the investigation has merit. The bill setting up the committee passed, 409 to 10. But the Democrats cautioned GOP lawmakers not to jump to conclusions and to keep partisanship out of the inquiry.
“I think there are serious questions that need to be investigated,” said Rep. Norman D. Dicks of Washington state, the committee’s ranking Democrat. At the same time, he urged Republicans to “lower the rhetoric” and complained that “we have too many committees in this Congress looking into this subject.”
The new committee, whose nine members also include Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles), will have to act swiftly to wind up its work by the end of the 105th Congress this fall. Its inquiry is also complicated by the numerous other committees in the House and Senate looking into pieces of the controversy.
Indeed, a panel of Clinton administration officials testified Thursday before separate House and Senate committees on the issue, rejecting the contention that Clinton’s decisions had caused security damage to the United States.
“We’re satisfied no authorized transfers [of technology] . . . contributed to [the Chinese] space launch program,” said John D. Holum, acting undersecretary of State for arms control and international security affairs.
But Rep. Floyd D. Spence (R-S.C.), chairman of the House National Security Committee, scoffed at the denials from Holum and others.
“To argue that China’s ballistic missile program has not benefited from launching U.S. satellites defies common sense and ignores reality,” Spence said.
In creating a special committee, the House was sidestepping an already established investigative panel that has generated more controversy than concrete results.
The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, headed by Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), continues its separate multimillion-dollar investigation into campaign fund-raising abuses, including allegations that the Chinese government sought to influence U.S. elections.
