Rosenberg, the sequel

By Charles Smith

In 1994, Chinese army Gen. Ding Henggao, and his team of two
sub-commanders, Lt. Gen. Shen Rougjun and Lt. Gen. Huai Guomo, led the
most spectacular raid of U.S. military technology since the 1949 atomic
espionage by Soviet spies, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.

Further, secret documents forced from the Commerce Department by a
Federal lawsuit prove that the Clinton administration sought direct
military exports to China. The documents detail Commerce Department
contacts with a Chinese army unit called COSTIND, or the “Chinese
Commission on Science, Technology and National Defense Industry.”

The newly released information includes a detailed bio of COSTIND
Gen. Huai Guomo, a personal letter to Gen. Ding, COSTIND’s commander, as
well as a letter from U.S. defense contractor, Allied Signal
Corporation, seeking help for a jet engine transfer to the Chinese
“Harbin” aerospace company.

According to materials sent to Commerce Secretary Ron Brown by Ding,
Harbin is owned by the Chinese army. Harbin currently manufactures
fighters and bombers for the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF)
and for export to Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Iran.

The detailed documents included two pages of information on Gen. Huai
in both English and Chinese. Huai, according to the Clinton
administration, is “a career administrator in China’s defense industrial
complex” and the very model of a modern Chinese general.

Huai’s credits include joining the Chinese Communist Party in 1953
and working in the PLA “nuclear industry.” Huai reportedly “impressed”
his U.S. Defense “counterparts” over the years as a “competent,
professional as well as a cordial individual to work with.”

Another key document previously withheld from public view is a 1995
letter from Defense Secretary William Perry to Gen. Ding.

“On behalf of the United States Department of Defense,” wrote
Secretary Perry in July 1995, “I extend my regard to the officers and
soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army’s Commission on Science,
Technology and Industry for National Defense on the 46th Anniversary of
the founding of the People’s Republic of China.”

“Advancing the military relationship between our two nations remains
an objective which we agree serves the long-term interests of peace and
stability in the Asia-Pacific Region,” wrote Perry.

“In the area of air traffic control. We have accomplished Step 5 of
the Eight Point Air Traffic Control Initiative, and are prepared to
carry our Step 6 by sending a delegation to China at
any mutually agreed upon time in the future. Upon completion of Step 6,
we would welcome a combined civil-military air traffic control
delegation from China to the United States which will
mark Step 7 of the Eight Point Plan,” Perry detailed.

“Let me close by again conveying my respects to you on your National
Day,” he concluded. “And by reiterating my support for our bilateral
military relationship.”

Clearly, the Commerce Department’s vain attempt in 1998 to dispute
the fact COSTIND was not a Chinese army unit was another White House
spin effort that failed. COSTIND, at least as far as Perry was
concerned, was indeed a military unit, commanded by Gen. Ding and manned
by “officers and soldiers” of the PLA.

In 1998, the Commerce Department denied access to all Chinagate
documents, citing national security, on the grounds that they could
“neither confirm nor deny” their existence. In response, this reporter
filed suit in federal court, located in Richmond, Va., seeking the
withheld information.

Previously released information, forced from the Clinton
administration using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), clearly
showed meetings between Commerce officials and COSTIND.
For example, one document described an August 1994 meeting in Beijing
that included COSTIND Gen. Shen, Ron Brown, and Loral CEO, Bernard
Schwartz.

The evidence showed that the Commerce Department was withholding
details on “military” exports directly to the Chinese army. Commerce is
not authorized to issue export licenses to military end-users.

The recently released information on the PLA generals was withheld
from the American public until federal court judge Robert Payne ordered
the materials to be released in a ruling issued on June 29, 1999.

The documents underscore the Clinton administration’s attempt to form
a political/military alliance with Communist China. Perry could not help
but include direct references to a “bilateral” military relationship.

The Clinton/China military relationship included the “Eight Point
Plan” to transfer a state-of-the-art air defense system directly to the
PLAAF. The air defense technology transfer to the PLAAF, according to
1998 GAO testimony on U.S. military sales to China, required a waiver
signed by President Clinton.

COSTIND operations against the Commerce Department included a vast
array of U.S. military technology. One deadly example, and a specialty
of Gen. Huai, was the export of U.S. super-computers for Chinese army
nuclear weapons research.

Commerce Department documents show that Sun Corp., a U.S. computer
maker, sold a super-computer directly to a Chinese army nuclear weapons
lab at Yuanwang Corp. The documents also show that the Clinton
administration knew that Yuanwang was operated by the Chinese army.
Detailed information was given to the Commerce Department, including the
direct PLA contacts at the Chinese weapons labs prior to the sale by
none other than Gen. Ding himself. According to the Commerce documents,
Yuanwang manufactures test equipment for the Lop Nor nuclear weapons
facility in China.

According to U.S. Naval Institute defense analyst Norman Friedman,
“The Chinese obtained the computer programs (codes) Los Alamos uses to
simulate what happens inside an exploding
nuclear warhead. The software is exactly what a designer of an advanced
weapon would need.”

“Softened” Clinton-led export regulations, according to Friedman,
“made it possible for the Chinese to buy 600 super-computers on which to
run that software. Thus, the Chinese have transformed their weapons
development capability in a very few years.”

According to defense sources, China will soon test a new nuclear
weapon design capacity. The Chinese army’s Second Artillery Corp. is
planning to test launch their latest Dong-Feng (East
Wind) 31 missile in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the July 1949
take over of China by Mao. The DF-31 is reported to be able to deliver
three, newly developed, lightweight, 90-kiloton nuclear warheads to any
target in America.

The Chinese DF-31 is a road mobile, nuclear-tipped, SCUD-like missile
that is nearly impossible to find, much less destroy. It is intended to
counter the USAF B-2 bomber in a “limited” nuclear war scenario where
China and the U.S. would only kill a few million people on each side. If
deployed in large numbers, the DF-31 could pose a significant first
strike threat against stationary military targets inside the U.S.
homeland, such as the MX missile fields and the single B-2 bomber base.

In the end, Ding, Shen and Huai have all retired with the highest
rewards from the Communist Party. Their operations against America were
carefully planned and executed. Their meetings were quietly withheld
from public view by a U.S. administration seeking to reap the benefits
from “military” sales to the People’s Liberation Army in the form of
political donations.

The Clinton administration assisted China in its efforts to become
the next nuclear superpower. The next Cold War has begun, and with it
will come another expensive nuclear arms race. America can no longer lay
claim to dominate the world with firepower. The decade of peace is over.
The defeat of the Soviet empire was squandered by a callous and
negligent president more concerned with his sexual antics than nuclear
espionage.


Related items:


Charles Smith

Charles R. Smith is a noted investigative journalist. For over 20 years, Smith has covered areas of national security and information warfare. He frequently appears on national television for the Fox network and is a popular guest on radio shows all over America. Read more of Charles Smith's articles here.