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US firms helped China along on road to superior missiles, says Republican Congressman

US satellite companies helped China ''perfect'' its strategic missiles through technology transferred with the approval of the Clinton administration, says Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.

Rohrabacher, who is chairman of the house science sub-committee on space and aeronautics, said Beijing's strategic rockets were unable to target the United States effectively five years ago but benefited greatly in the past several years by acquiring technology with both commercial and military applications.

In his speech, which was reported in Monday's Washington Times he said, ''I am very sad to say they (the Chinese) now have the capability of landing nuclear weapons in the United States and we are the ones who perfected their rockets.''

He said until last year, the space boosters, known as long march, were unreliable and three out of five attempts to launch the boosters ended in failure. The rockets were ''upgraded'' after several US corporations provided information last year on their flaws.

The daily quoted experts as saying space launch technology is identical to that used by strategic missiles. In fact, China's premier manufacturer of long march boosters makes long-range nuclear missiles for the military.

Rohrabacher said he was investigating claims that several US companies helped improve Chinese missiles by supplying ''stage-separation'' technology.

More alarming were reports that the Chinese had acquired the technology used to ''dispense'' satellites in space once they reach orbit. Such technology was identical to that used in launching multiple, independently targetable re-entry vehicles, the so-called MIRV multiple-warheads, he said.

Senior house members, including Speaker Newt Gingrich, were briefed last week on the issue and have asked the administration to explain how the missile technology leaked out. The science and national security committees are expected to hold hearings some time during the next several weeks, the daily quoted house aides having said.

The daily said the justice department is investigating whether Hughes Electronics Corp and Loral Space and Communications Ltd improperly supplied dual-use space and strategic missile know-how to China following the 1996 launch failure of a long march Rocket that crashed with a US $ 200 million satellite on board.

A secret Pentagon report on the companies' technology transfer determined that ''United States national security has been harmed,'' it says quoting US officials who have seen the report.

Rohrabacher said President Clinton and his administration ''have been doing everything they can to quash the investigation.''

He said the probe was undermined two months ago when Clinton approved the export to China of similar dual-use technology.

According to the daily, a report by the Central Intelligence Agency sent to senior US policy-makers last month said China now has 13 of its 18 long-range CSS-4 strategic missiles pointed at the United States.

Rohrabacher said his investigation into the matter was prompted by an executive from a US aerospace company involved in ''upgrading'' the Chinese missile capability, which said the firm was operating under a ''national security waiver'' signed by Clinton.

Later, in an interview to the Washington Times he said the company was Motorola Corp. He did not identify the executive.

US intelligence agencies have said Chinese strategic missiles lacked multiple-warhead capabilities but that new systems are expected to have the advanced several-warhead configurations.

''So the American companies proceeded to provide stage- separation technology, as well as technology that enabled rocket to spit out satellites, or nuclear warheads, whichever the communist Chinese might want to use on any particular day," Rohrabacher said.

The Loral and Hughes scientists who gave the Chinese the missile know-how ''charged forward to correct the problems of the long march,'' he said.

UNI

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