Defense Department investigators have reportedly concluded that a Hughes Electronics subsidiary gave China information potentially damaging to US national security.
According to Wednesday's New York Times, which said it was given an 11-page unclassified version of a secret report, Hughes Space and Communications scientists helped the Chinese update their formulas for determining the effects of wind and other forces on rockets after a Chinese rocket carrying a Hughes-built commercial satellite crashed in 1995. This information could have helped Chinese engineers in their work on nuclear missiles.
Chinese rockets are popular with Western companies because they can provide a far cheaper means to deploy satellites than European or American launches. The problem has been unreliability -- and how far companies have gone (and have been allowed to go) in addressing that problem has become a military and political issue in the United States.
Hughes and Loral Space & Communications (LOR) are under investigation by the Justice Department and two congressional committees for their role in transferring technology to the Chinese after they lost satellites in two Chinese rocket explosions.
The report leaked to The Times was prepared by Air Force Intelligence and the Defense Technology Security Administration at the request of two congressional committees investigating the transfer of sensitive space technology to China.
According to the Times, the report said that while Hughes' aid "raises national security concerns," it probably did not tilt the US-China military balance.
A similar but distinct spin on the report appeared in The Washington Post. Citing the comments of unnamed administration officials, it said the Pentagon concluded that Hughes "went well beyond what should have been allowed" when it told China the crash was caused by problems with the rocket's fairing, a heat-resistant shroud covering the satellite.
Either way, the papers seems to be in agreement that Pentagon investigators think Hughes went too far in aiding Chinese engineers -- a claim Hughes rejects.
The Post quoted a Hughes spokesman who said that no one at the company had seen the report but that the company stood by earlier statements that it had not transferred any information that China could use to improve its ballistic missiles. Ballistic missiles do not have fairings.
The Hughes satellite was to have been launched into space in 1995, but the Chinese Long March rocket carrying it exploded only seconds after takeoff, prompting Chinese officials to blame the satellite.
Hughes asked for and received permission from the Commerce Department to discuss its views on what happened, although the company was told to be careful not to disclose rocketry data that could assist Beijing in developing military missiles.
Republicans have contended that under the Clinton administration, the Commerce Department, eager to aid US businesses, was lax in its oversight of possible technology transfers to China. In 1996, President Clinton loosened the rules governing satellite exports to China, but Congress this year overturned that decision.
The Justice Department is also probing allegations that the CIA obstructed justice by allegedly warning Hughes about the congressional probe into its dealings with China.
Reuters contributed to this report.
