[FPSPACE] China to End Missile Part Exports

[Dan Barkley]

> On Wed, 22 Nov 2000, Dan Barkley wrote:
>
> > For American companies, the immediate effect will be the unfreezing of
> > licence applications to launch American satellites on Chinese rockets.
>
> Is this true?  I thought that the licensing problem was essentially
> dictated by statute.  In other words, Clinton cannot simply open this up
> on his own, since there is a law regulating it.

I understand that the State Dept. has the last say on  certifying license
applications for satellite exports. According to the Times (London)The
State Department announced  yesterday it was lifting sanctions on
Chinese military technology companies and would begin to consider
approving licences for the mainland to launch US satellites.

> It is also worth noting that Congress objected to this stuff because of
> concern that technology was going TO CHINA, not because of proliferation
> to other countries.  The Republicans were worried that American technology
> was going into Chinese ICBMs targeted at the US.

Yeah that's the arguement. But I think this announcement is more geared
toward thwarting US interest in NMD and arms sales to Taiwan. I think
there is an implicit 'quid quo pro'. In 1992, when President Bush decided
to sell F16 fighters to Taiwan, Beijing responded by supplying Pakistan
with nuclear-capable M11 missiles (Times/ London).

Dan Barkley