Pentagon Official Denies Technology Aided China
China is unlikely to have enhanced its intercontinental ballistic missile program, even marginally, from U.S. technology transfers, a top Pentagon official said Thursday in Senate testimony that appeared to contradict an earlier Pentagon assessment.
“I do not believe that there has been any improvement to Chinese ICBM capability,” Franklin Miller, principal deputy assistant secretary of Defense, told the Senate Commerce Committee. He did not elaborate.
Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) challenged Miller’s assertion, citing testimony by other experts and an Air Force intelligence analysis.
A variety of congressional inquiries are underway into whether Beijing benefited militarily from export to China of U.S. communications satellites and related technology and whether campaign contributions from aerospace executives or Chinese interests played a role.
Congress also is looking into whether national security was compromised when two U.S. aerospace companies provided sensitive information to China after a failed 1996 launch of a U.S. satellite atop a Chinese missile.
Last year, an Air Force intelligence agency concluded the material sent to China might have been useful in improving long-range nuclear missiles. The CIA disagreed earlier this year, denying that the report harmed U.S. security.
President Clinton designated the Commerce Department as the lead agency for licensing technology exports in 1996, which critics contend shortchanges national security for business interests.
Congress is considering legislation to return the responsibility to the State Department.
John Holum, acting undersecretary of State for international security affairs, told the panel: “In essence, Commerce has a process that works.”
He said the present system gives the State Department and various other agencies input and an opportunity to register objections on national security grounds.
“In sum, all agencies agree that licensing of commercial communication satellites, with the strong security protections attendant to that move, now reside in the right place, and I hope the committee will agree,” Holum said.
