June 27, 2000
China uses computers
from U.S. illegally
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
China's main nuclear weapons center is using
U.S. supercomputers illegally to simulate warhead
detonations without actual underground tests, The
Washington Times has learned.
U.S.-origin high-performance computers are
being used at the Chinese Academy of Engineering
Physics, the main nuclear weapons facility in Beijing.
The facility is viewed by officials as China's version
of Los Alamos National Laboratory, according to
Clinton administration intelligence officials.
The use of U.S. supercomputers � with
computational speeds of billions of operations per
second or faster � at the nuclear facility was
outlined in a report classified "top-secret" and
circulated among senior U.S. national security
officials last month, said the officials who have seen
it. They discussed some elements of the report on the
condition of anonymity.
Disclosure of the use of U.S. computers to help
develop China's nuclear arms comes as the Clinton
administration and Congress are considering new
measures to loosen exports of American-made
high-performance computers.
An amendment to the current defense
authorization bill President Clinton signed in February
further relaxed export rules on advanced computers,
allowing U.S. manufacturers to begin selling faster
systems on Aug. 15.
Officials did not identify the U.S. manufacturers of
the systems or how they were obtained.
Supercomputer sales have been restricted
because they are crucial elements for designing and
developing nuclear weapons, missiles and advanced
conventional arms, according to defense officials.
Additionally, the U.S. intelligence community
reported last month that China is expanding a nuclear
research facility at Mianyang. The so-called "Science
City" there is working on both nuclear weapons and
civilian energy research, the intelligence officials said.
The reported supercomputer use at the nuclear
facility is the third time China's government has been
detected diverting U.S.-origin computers to defense
facilities.
In 1997, China agreed to return a Silicon
Graphics supercomputer that was illegally diverted
through a Hong Kong front company to a Chinese
defense facility.
A White House National Security Council
spokesman declined to comment, citing a policy of
not talking about intelligence matters.
A U.S. intelligence official who was not familiar
with the report said that it has been difficult for U.S.
intelligence agencies to learn whether China is using
complete U.S. advanced computers, or whether they
are using a combination of U.S. components and
homemade systems.
According to Clinton administration officials, the
president hopes to dramatically ease export control
on high-powered computers.
An amendment to the current defense
authorization bill sponsored by Sen. Harry Reid,
Nevada Democrat, would make it easier for the
president to change the export rules by reducing a
congressional notification period from 180 days to
30 days.
The argument of some officials who support the
changes is that the systems are so widely available
that controlling them is futile.
Other officials who oppose the decontrol note
that the United States produced the best and fastest
supercomputers and that they should not be exported
to countries that could use them against the United
States, like China.
A Senate national security aide said the
administration "failed completely" to win Chinese
government cooperation in checking on the end use
of U.S. computers sold during the 1990s.
"That's why the Chinese know that they can use
these computers with impunity," the aide said, noting
that the relaxation of controls "has been a disaster for
U.S. national security."
Stephen Bryen, a Pentagon export-control official
during the Reagan administration, said he predicted in
the early 1990s that U.S. supercomputers would be
used by China for developing advanced nuclear
weapons.
"That's been the great worry about transfers of
supercomputers," he said. "That they would be able
to design a new generation of smaller warheads that
can fit on smaller missiles or which can be MIRVed"
� multiple, independently targetable re-entry
vehicles, or multiple warheads.
Mr. Bryen said in an interview that the United
States was able to radically reduce the number of
actual underground nuclear tests needed for
developing new warheads, from several hundred to
about five.
"This is not good news for us because the
Chinese can do a lot of this covertly," he said. "It will
be hard for us to know their capabilities, and we will
have a difficult time understanding the threat."
The report by the special House committee that
investigated Chinese spying and technology
acquisition stated that there is limited information on
China's use of U.S. supercomputers. However, the
report said that the panel "judges that the [People's
Republic of China] has been using high performance
computers for nuclear weapons applications."
The report stated that under relaxed export rules,
China may have purchased as many as 603
high-speed computers between 1996 and 1998.
Following the illegal diversion to defense use of
several U.S. supercomputers by Russia and China,
Congress in 1998 passed a law requiring tighter
restrictions.
The law required exporters to notify the
government before selling supercomputers to nations
like China and Russia.
The U.S. computer industry opposed the
requirement and has lobbied instead for further
relaxation of controls as computer computational
capabilities increased.
In July, Mr. Clinton loosened the restrictions
further to allow exports of machines capable of 6.5
billion operations per second, and in February
announced he will allow sales of computers that carry
out 12.5 billion operations per second.
According to the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear
Arms Control, the Chinese Academy of Engineering
Physics was identified in June 1997 as an "entity of
concern," a designation that warned American
exporters that the institute was involved in defense
programs.
A Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee
report on weapons proliferation stated that China
stepped up purchases of U.S. supercomputers for its
nuclear weapons and missile development program in
the late 1990s.
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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