Bush Sanctions China - Espionage From Beijing

Noted & Quoted in: newsmax.com, September 30, 2004

Noted & Quoted by: Charles R. Smith

NewsMax.com

The list of Chinese Army companies now under sanction includes several familiar names from the Clinton years such as China Great Wall Industry, China North Industries (Norinco) and the China New Era Group. Both China Great Wall and China North Industries received advanced U.S. space technology through presidential waivers signed by President Clinton.

Five other Chinese Army owned companies have also been added to the sanction list. The companies were identified as the Beijing Institute of Aerodynamics, the Beijing Institute of Opto-Electronic Technology, LIMMT Economic and Trade Company, Ltd., the Oriental Scientific Instruments Corporation, and South Industries Science and Technology Trading Co., Ltd.

According to the U.S. State Department, the new sanctions were imposed because of arms technology transfers to Iran banned by the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

The Chinese sales to Iran have "the potential to make a material contribution to the development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or cruise or ballistic missile systems."

Iran recently announced that it has developed a "new long-range missile" that has pinpoint accuracy. U.S. intelligence analysts suspect that China assisted the Iranian missile development by supplying advanced space-based navigation technology. The missile navigation technology was originally obtained by China from the U.S. through a presidential waiver supplied by President Clinton.

Chinese Army Firms

The companies involved in the advanced missile technology transfer to Iran are very familiar to U.S. military analysts. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) lists China Great Wall, Norinco and the China New Era Group as entities "key to supporting the uniformed services and China's industrial base and to acquiring military and dual-use technology."

"The companies depicted are established and chartered to conduct business in the international market. Many have offices overseas. While they are profit oriented and are the key means for defense complex foreign exchange earnings, they also are the primary conduits for acquisition of new and advanced technologies," states a DIA reference report on the Chinese defense industries.

According to the DIA, Great Wall, Norinco and China New Era are all directly under the control of the Chinese Army and were established to provide cover. Chinese military officials frequently travel to the U.S. as employees of these companies to purchase technology not cleared for direct export to China.

In fact, Great Wall officials recently visited the U.S. in July 2004. According to an article recently published in Aviation Week and Space Technology, China Great Wall was interested in purchasing inflatable space station technology from Bigelow Aerospace in Nevada.

Bigelow is currently developing a commercial "Nautilus" inflatable space module. The watermelon shaped Nautilus weighs 25 tons and once inflated in orbit, will measure 45 x 22 ft. with 330 cu. meters of volume.

The Bigelow inflatable module is based on NASA technology and Bigelow is receiving "substantial technical assistance" from NASA, which developed the original inflatable concept for use on the International Space Station.

China Great Wall managers "sounded out the company on the possible launch of Bigelow test or operational modules on Long March boosters or the in-orbit support of Nautilus by Shenzhou Chinese manned spacecraft." The U.S. government has previously sanctioned China Great Wall two times for selling advanced missile technology. Great Wall, along with nine other PLA controlled companies, sold nuclear tipped M-9 missiles to Pakistan. In response, Great Wall was banned from purchasing U.S. controlled technology, including space technology.

The sanctions against China come as tensions between Washington and Beijing are rising. U.S. intelligence satellites have recently discovered the Chinese Navy is building the new "Yuan" class of conventional attack submarines at the Wuhan shipyard. The Chinese sub fleet is currently the second largest force in the world.

Official news outlets in China also recently announced that the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is building a new sub base at Qungdao, in the Shandong province, along the northern coast.

PRC Bribes Canadian Diplomat

The rise in military tensions with Beijing also come on the heels of a major Chinese/Canadian scandal. The Asian Pacific Post has reported that a high ranking Canadian diplomat based in China has left his post suddenly after he was suspected of accepting bribes to help Chinese nationals enter Canada illegally.

According to the Asian Pacific Post, a probe is also underway on reports that Chinese passports with Canadian student visas have been stolen from the embassy. Some have reportedly turned up in Korea. The Post reports that the key suspect is a Canadian of Chinese origin who was originally posted to the Canadian Trade office in Shanghai in 1999 and later to the Immigration section of the Canadian embassy in Beijing in 2001. It is believed he held the rank of second secretary. The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the officer in question has resigned.

"This latest episode is sadly but another example of negligence at best, malfeasance at worst, on the part of Canadian officials in China," stated Scott Newark, a former Crown Prosecutor and Executive Officer of the Canadian Police Association. Newark recently served as a Special Security Advisor to the Government of Ontario.

Canada and PRC Espionage

"It began in the early 90's when an Immigration control officer in Hong Kong blew the whistle on consular staff accepting lavish gifts from the ultra wealthy scions of HK (now PRC) society like Li Ka Shing and Stanley Ho. The officer uncovered massive visa fraud, compromised computer security and a steady stream of Triad thugs granted entry to Canada. His reward for his diligence was exile to Ottawa and ultimate expulsion from the Ministry," noted Newark.

"Finally alerted to this menace, in the mid 90's, the RCMP and CSIS (Canada's sort of intelligence agency) undertook a review of the threat posed to Canadian security posed by combined efforts of the government of the PRC, Triad figures and Chinese "business" interests. The resulting report (Project Sidewinder) was as detailed an analysis of this complex issue as ever produced. But at literally the last minute, in a still unexplained move, CSIS declined to participate further and ordered all files and notes destroyed," stated Newark.

"Fortunately, no one complied and the Sidewinder report is the worst kept 'secret' in Ottawa. The CSIS officer who produced the Report, by the way, also found himself out of work a short time later," said Newark.

In the late 90's the original complaint about compromised computer security and bribed officials in HK was still being 'investigated' by the Mounties and in a twist of fate it ended up in the hands of a cop, Cpl Bob Read, who still thought his job was to catch bad guys. After being stonewalled by Mountie management for over a year, Read expressed his frustration about unseen interference and, of course, got canned for speaking out," noted Newark.

"Interestingly, Read was completely exonerated earlier this year by a civilian review of his firing which confirmed the substance and seriousness of all of the original issues and justified his unprecedented speaking out. This being Canada, the Commissioner of the RCMP is free to ignore such inconvenient reports and Read is now mired in Federal Court," explained Newark.

"It is of course nothing but a co-incidence that throughout all of this our then Prime Minister (who personally appoints the head of CSIS, the RCMP etc...) and his family had extensive and direct business links to many of the subjects of the squelched Sidewinder probe. Actually, suspicion aside, most disturbing is the conclusion of the agency that cleared Cpl. Read, that the institutions of government had themselves become politicized and thereby failed to do their duties. This latest scandal has a familiar odor and no doubt people are working overtime in search of rugs to sweep this under," concluded Newark.