Lott Seeks to Cool Attacks Over Spy Case

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) warned Wednesday that Congress should not “rush to judgment” in dealing with alleged Chinese espionage, despite a House investigative panel’s contention that Beijing has stolen America’s top nuclear secrets.

Lott said that the United States must remain engaged with the Chinese government to keep from driving Beijing into a new Cold War. He also sought to cool partisan attacks based on the spy charges, saying: “I don’t think we should say this is the fault of this administration or that administration.”

The senator’s comments were in marked contrast to the reaction of many key Republican political leaders only a day earlier. When the House committee’s report was issued Tuesday, a number of GOP lawmakers and candidates heaped blame on the Clinton administration and called for the resignation of top officials.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) echoed Lott’s cautionary tone Wednesday, saying that Congress has “a duty to find out what happened in the past, what’s occurring now and what should be done to hold those involved responsible,” but he stopped short of calling for immediate action.

Capitol Hill strategists said that most congressional proposals for reform are likely to come from the House and Senate intelligence committees, which are expected to begin hearings on the China espionage issue after the Memorial Day recess next week.

Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), chairman of the investigative panel that issued the report on China, has referred almost half of the 38 recommendations in the document to appropriate congressional committees and has asked the administration to put the rest into effect.

Even Cox praised the administration Wednesday, saying he was “heartened” to hear that it intends to adopt many of the panel’s recommendations. But he said he thinks the panel still will have to do “a little bit of a persuasion job” on some points.

The White House has embraced 30 of the remedies recommended by the committee, which spent a year investigating reports of Chinese espionage and technology transfers. But it has rejected the panel’s call for surprise inspections of high-performance computers sold to China and for Defense or State Department veto power over high-technology exports.

The sentiments expressed by Lott were echoed by lawmakers of both parties in separate House and Senate hearings at which Cox and Rep. Norman Dicks of Washington, ranking Democrat on the investigative panel, discussed the committee’s findings.

Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-Neb.), chairman of the House International Relations subcommittee on Asian and Pacific issues, praised the Cox panel’s findings, which were unanimously endorsed by its Democratic and Republican members, as “extraordinarily bipartisan.”

Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), a member of a Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee that convened one of the hearings Wednesday, warned that Americans “should not waste our time searching for scapegoats” because “only our enemies can take solace” from that.

Meanwhile, the White House rejected a call by House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) that President Clinton fire National Security Advisor Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger for not acting aggressively enough to deal with early warnings about Chinese espionage.

During a presidential trip to Florida, White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said that “the president has full confidence in Mr. Berger” and has no plans to ask for his resignation. Lockhart did not address GOP demands that Clinton also fire Atty. Gen. Janet Reno.

Despite Lott’s display of restraint, Republicans were not willing to stifle all of their criticism of the administration’s handling of the espionage issue.

Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, called on the administration to scrap its policy of trying to form a “strategic partnership” with China, calling it “naive and misguided” in the wake of the Cox panel’s findings.

At the same time, four lawmakers, including Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), urged Clinton in a letter to set aside negotiations for China’s entry into the World Trade Organization. The others were Gilman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.).

Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, excoriated the administration for refusing to cooperate during the early stages of the investigation, before finally agreeing to relent.

For all the recommendations in their report, Cox and Dicks said that their primary hope is that lawmakers will prod the administration into getting Europe and Japan to reimpose restrictions on the export of sensitive technology to prevent Beijing from circumventing U.S. restraints.

The complete text of the Cox report is available on The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/coxreport

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Nuclear Arsenal’s Crown Jewel

The House report says the Chinese have stolen design information on the W-88 thermonuclear warhead used on the Trident II D-5 missile. The W-88 is the most-advanced U.S. warhead. It is small and light, thereby increasing the number of such warheads a single missile can carry.

Thermonuclear Warhead

Fission device: It explodes, producing hydrogen isotopes from lithium deuteride. Isotopes fuse, creating thermonuclear explosion.

Single MIRV (Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicle) missile can carry up to eight W-88 warheads

Ohio-Class Submarine

This class of sub can carry up to 432 missiles, with a potential for 3,456 warheads.

Typical missile range: 4,606 miles

Historical Perspective

Hiroshima Bomb “Little Boy” Nuclear Weapon

(components): Nonnuclear explosive, Uranium wedge, Radar antenna

Uranium target: When struck by wedge of uranium, sets off nuclear blast.

Sources: World Book Encyclopedia; United States Naval Institute