WASHINGTON -- The US satellite industry urged the Senate on Monday to use some restraint when considering proposals to block launches of American satellites aboard Chinese missiles.
The House of Representatives moved quickly last month to ban such launches after questions were raised about whether they led to the transfer of technology that breached national security.
But satellite industry leaders, kicking off a public relations counter-offensive, said the Senate should slow down and allow probes in the House and Senate to proceed before changing policies on the issue.
Don Fuqua, president of the Aerospace Industries Association of America, told reporters at a briefing that he hoped the Senate would not fall victim to the "stampede mentality" that led to the resolutions in the House.
"We hope fairness prevails and they will see this is not a national security problem for the United States," he said. "All we're asking for is an honest evaluation and a fair evaluation."
Clayton Mowry, director of the Satellite Industry Association, said more than $8 billion in revenue from pending US contracts could be lost by a ban on Chinese launches over the next five years. He said 1,200 commercial satellites are planned to be launched over the next decade, many of them on Chinese rockets.
"The impact of blocking our access to foreign launch vehicles could be devastating," Mowry said, adding that satellite companies needed a broad range of choices for launch vehicles to reduce risk and costs and provide flexibility. "Our main goal is to preserve competition and choice."
Proposals to halt the flow of satellite and missile technology to Beijing are expected to be offered as amendments to a defense bill scheduled for consideration this week or next.
Both the House and Senate have launched inquiries into why President Clinton ignored Justice Department warnings when he approved a waiver to allow Loral Space & Communications Ltd. to launch a satellite atop a Chinese rocket, and whether Loral had earlier given China information that could improve the accuracy of its rockets, which can also carry military payloads.
Loral's president, Bernard Schwartz, gave more than US$1 million to Democratic political campaigns in the last election. Both Schwartz and the White House have denied the contributions played any role in the decisions.
Meantime Monday, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott complained that the CIA provided Congress with "wholly inadequate" information on technology transfers to China, and called on the White House to provide more detailed intelligence.
Lott said that even after Attorney General Janet Reno withdrew her objections, the CIA had provided the Senate intelligence committee with "only three paragraphs or conclusions from three out of the four reports" requested.
Sources familiar with the document say it generally held that the information provided to the Chinese by Loral and another US aerospace firm, Hughes Space and Communications Co., did not raise concerns about the increase of nuclear proliferation or jeopardize national security. A still-classified Pentagon damage assessment reportedly found otherwise.
