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China collecting U.S. nuclear secrets

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November 5, 2000 

WASHINGTON (AP) - Several countries, including China, have collected extensive nuclear and other sensitive information from the U.S. government that has "undercut U.S. policy, security and competitiveness," according to a previously secret American intelligence community report.

The 1998 report by the CIA and five other agencies said "losses are extensive" at the besieged Energy Department, and include "classified nuclear weapons design information to the Chinese" as well as declassified and unclassified material to China and other countries.

The report predates the congressional Cox Report, released last year, which concluded that the transfer of satellite and other technology to China, during and prior to the Clinton administration, harmed national security.

While the agencies "did not conduct a damage assessment of the information lost, individual cases clearly demonstrate that such information has saved countries substantial time and money and has undercut U.S. policy, security and competitiveness," said the report, published in a new book on China.

The report, which covers activities prior to November 1998, said Energy Department records show more than 250 known or suspected intelligence officers visited or were assigned to Energy facilities under various programs.

The U.S. intelligence community, working with the department, must "do more to gain a full understanding of the nature and extent of foreign targeting of DOE's unique scientific knowledge base," the report said.

Some of the information was simply downloaded from the Internet, while some was stolen, the report said.

Since 1995, the FBI has been investigating the suspected loss of U.S. nuclear warhead data to China, based on information found in documents provided by a defector.

That led to the investigation of Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwan-born researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Lee pleaded guilty to one count of improperly transferring nuclear secrets to a portable computer, but he was never charged with spying for China.

The intelligence report was one of more than 50 pages of documents, many of them classified, published in "The China Threat," by Bill Gertz, who writes about defense and national security for The Washington Times.

Three pages in the book carry the notice: "At the request of the Central Intelligence Agency, the publisher has withdrawn a classified report that was to have appeared on this page."

Bill Harlow, CIA spokesman, said Gertz "did approach us and we were able to convince him to leave several of the documents out. But we would have preferred that none were published."

One document says China will soon have enough short-range missiles to blanket Taiwan. Another says China is converting medium-range bombers to tankers so it can refuel planes in midair and extend its military reach.

Yet another document proposes that the United States provide advanced space technology to China in exchange for not selling missile technology to Iran and Pakistan. Gertz said this idea was withdrawn after it became public knowledge.