Bush Reverts to Satellites for China

Bush Reverts to Satellites for China

John L. Perry
Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2001

Quiz: Who won in the presidential election? Answer: George W. Bush. Wrong. It was Bill Clinton's strategy of sending sensitive satellite technology to communist China.

Not nine months into the new administration of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, official policy on whether and how to export satellite technology to China – where it can be readily deployed in nuclear warheads atop intercontinental ballistic missiles targeted at American cities – is on the fast track right back where it was during the administration of President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

For a while, it appeared to be going in just the opposite direction. Not any longer, and the satellite exporters are accomplishing their goal under the Republican administration, even as they had under the predecessor Democratic administration.

And what lessons does this teach?

New Faces, Same Policy

Lesson 1: Administrations go, administrations come, but United States corporations pressuring to penetrate the lucrative Chinese market remain relentlessly in business.

Lesson 2: Corporate influence, expressed so effectively through big-bucks campaign contributions, knows no partisan bounds, and its persistence is tireless.

Here's the background on what's taking place:

During their second-term re-election campaign, Clinton and Gore accepted enormous campaign contributions from two U.S. corporations heavily invested in efforts to export satellites and support technology to China – Loral Space & Communications, Ltd. of New York and Hughes Electronics Corp. of El Segundo, Calif.

At that time, Loral had not one but two major satellite deals pending with the communist regime in Beijing.

'Deliberately Violated U.S. Laws'

It was so fishy that, after a year of investigation, a special House of Representatives Committee chaired by Christopher Cox, a California Republican, concluded that "Loral and Hughes deliberately acted without the legally required license, and violated U.S. export laws."

Both Loral and Hughes denied having intentionally done anything illegal.

Loral assured Congress that – despite billions of dollars of potential business riding on its deal with Beijing – its failure to obtain an export license for a satellite it shipped to China was nothing more than an innocent oversight.

Hughes is still being investigated for the possibility of its campaign contributions having had something to do with favorable treatment by the Clinton-Gore administration.

Clinton, by then safely re-elected and despite the ongoing criminal investigation of Loral, stepped into the picture in 1998 and had his Commerce Department award the company a waiver that enabled it to export yet another of its satellites to China for launching on a Chinese-built missile.

GOP Congress Gets Tough

Disturbed over this, the Republican Congress by law then moved the control of licensing of U.S.-built satellites to the State Department, which was considered more strict about letting such high-tech American equipment get away to China.

Then Congress turned over to the Justice Department the investigation, and possible prosecution, of the Loral and Hughes cases.

Enter in January the new Republican administration, which was widely believed to be intent upon clamping down on export of U.S. technology that could be converted into nuclear weapons capable of being turned against this country.

On Aug. 31, the Wall Street Journal carried a story, inside on Page A-3, that has been largely ignored elsewhere in the American news media. It made two startling revelations.

Avoiding Criminal Liability

First, the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, which was handling the Loral investigation, had transferred the case out of the Justice Department and over to the State Department "for a civil settlement."

That means Loral is out from under any criminal charges or prosecution.

Instead, it faces a negotiated penalty – estimated in the range of $10 million, which is a token slap on the wrist in a business deal of this potential magnitude – and some technical revisions in the way it goes about handling its export-license applications.

Second, as part of the settlement, which has been negotiated by Loral attorneys and the State Department for months, the door would be opened again for the company to resume shipping satellites and other sensitive missile technology to the Chinese communists.

That settlement is purported to be ready for announcement by mid-September.

While Few Are Looking

These latest developments began to trickle out of the Bush-Cheney administration just as the long Labor Day weekend began – a traditional time in Washington for politicians to make public distasteful information when as many people as possible are distracted by other things.

With the log-jam on export of satellites and related technology to China about to be broken, the industry is now pressuring Congress to make it even easier to export U.S. technology and hardware to potential U.S. enemies.

It wants lawmakers to act favorably on a House bill that would return the licensing controls back to the Commerce Department, with its track record of prompt and favorable action.

In short, the policy of satellites-for-Beijing is headed right back where it was during the "good ol' days" of Clinton coziness with Red China.

John L. Perry, a prize-winning newspaper editor and writer who served on White House staffs of two presidents, is senior editor for NewsMax.com.Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
China/Taiwan
Clinton Scandals