Report: China uses racial profiling in acquiring technology

Inside Washington

While agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation may now fear being charged with racial bias if they open a counter-intelligence investigation of someone who happens to be from the wrong ethnic group, a recent Defense Department report indicates that the People's Republic of China (PRC) harbors no similar qualm in trying to recruit ethnic Chinese to aid them in acquiring Western technology.

The DOD's Annual Report on the Military Power of the People's Republic of China, released in July, reveals that the PRC engages in this type of profiling-and may plan to increase it.

"Recently, two authoritative PRC journals recommended an increase in the use of overseas ethnic-Chinese scientists to transfer foreign technology," said the report. "The journals endorse building databases of such overseas scientists, tasking them with research of interest to Beijing, and maintaining secrecy through the use of intermediaries and third countries.

"Recruitment through intermediaries was recommended to avoid complications due to policies and sensitivities of the targeted nation," said the report. "One journal suggested private sector intermediary organizations and.international talent exchange associations be used for recruiting.

"The journals also suggested setting up an 'Overseas Chinese Experts Data Center' operated by the Ministry of Science, fed by multiple sources, and organized by region, country, and profession," said the report. "This data would be collected through privately owned service organizations supported by the States, over Internet websites hosted in China and the target country, by the private sector's foreign offices, and by science attaches in PRC embassies and consulates abroad.

"Using academic exchange as a medium to train scientists and develop ties between scientists, China appears to be building an informal S&T network around the world that could not only contribute to basic research but also to the development of commercial and military technologies."

The Defense Department also concluded that PRC-- controlled businesses operating inside the United States may be used to acquire military technology for the People's Liberation Army. "Since 1979," said the report, "thousands of PRC business entities have been established in the United States. The bulk of the business conducted by these entities is probably legitimate, but an undetermined number may target dual-use commodities and controlled technologies restricted from sale to the PRC."

Why would the PRC devote so much time and energy to acquiring Western military technology? Remember Pearl Harbor?

"Chinese doctrine is moving toward the goal of surprise, deception, and shock effect in the opening phase of a campaign," says the report. "China is exploring coercive strategies designed to bring Taipei to terms quickly."

What does this mean for America? A great deal.

Last April, after the PRC temporarily confiscated a damaged U.S. EP-3 surveillance plane, and detained its crew on Hainan Island, President Bush said the U.S. would do "whatever it took to help Taiwan defend herself" against a PRC invasion. The Defense Department report indicates that the PRC is undertaking a massive military buildup designed to fight just such a war-which would pit two nuclear-armed powers against one another.

"Beijing's military training exercises increasingly focus on the United States as an adversary," said the report.

In addition to its efforts to acquire naval assets that could potentially sink U.S. ships in the Western Pacific, the PRC is developing land-based missiles that can target U.S. bases in the region. "The PLA is developing variants of the CSS-6 [missile] that enable. attacks against Okinawa when forward-- deployed or against Taiwan when deployed further inland."

The Defense Department report backs up the conclusions made three years ago by the House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China-popularly known as the Cox Committee, after its chairman, Rep. Chris Cox (R.-Calif.). In a report that was declassified on May 25, 1999, the Cox Committee said the "PRC's intelligence collection efforts to develop modern thermonuclear warheads have focused primarily on the following U.S. National Laboratories: Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge and Sandia. These efforts included espionage, rigorous review of U.S. unclassified technical and academic publications, and extensive interaction with U.S. scientists and Department of Energy laboratories."

"Espionage played a central part in the PRC's acquisition of classified U.S. thermonuclear warhead design secrets," concluded the Cox Committee. "In several cases, the PRC identified lab employees, invited them to the PRC, and approached them for help, sometimes playing upon ethnic ties to recruit individuals."

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Jul 29, 2002
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