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Chinese spying got U.S. into act

Saturday, April 24, 1999

By JOHN DIAMOND
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- To figure out how much China may have gained from spying on American nuclear weapons labs, U.S. intelligence agents had to do quite a bit of spying of their own.

There were electronic intercepts, development of friendly Chinese assets, and perhaps the biggest break of all -- a Chinese government document in 1995 that showed Beijing had obtained U.S. secrets.

"We had a source give us a document that contained classified U.S. information, and it was a Chinese document," said one senior intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials determined there was information in the document the Chinese "could only have obtained through espionage," the official explained.

"That sounds like a bit of an intelligence coup by the United States," said John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington-based group that researches intelligence issues.

There has been plenty of outrage, plus promises to improve security, since U.S. officials confirmed that lax security at the Energy Department's nuclear weapons labs allowed Chinese spies to obtain U.S. secrets.

But lost in public debate was how much spying on China the Americans did.

For intelligence officials, that's just fine. They know that Beijing is watching every word from Washington, looking for signs of how much U.S. spies have uncovered.

CIA insiders winced at the idea that a version of the final damage assessment was going to be released publicly, officials said.

The assessment presented to President Clinton and lawmakers on Wednesday focused on how China used the secrets it obtained through espionage along with information gleaned from public sources, such as scientific conferences, to improve its nuclear weapons.

The report concluded that China will be able to develop smaller, lighter nuclear warheads adaptable to multiple-warhead missiles. Beijing is within a few years of fielding such a weapon, the report concluded.

Beijing has denied any spying, saying its own scientists were capable of developing improved nuclear weapons without stolen U.S. secrets. The United States doesn't bother to make such denials about its spying.

The damage report was assembled by nuclear weapons and China experts from the CIA, FBI, Pentagon, Department of Energy, and National Security Agency. Throughout it are indications of the extent of U.S. spying.

For instance, it was first reported that China had gained information on just the W-88 warhead aboard nuclear submarines and the neutron bomb. Unclassified reports said China also obtained secrets about several reentry vehicles -- the nuclear weapons used in multiple-warhead missiles.

The classified version of the report gave specific dates when new Chinese weapons might be deployed -- another coup for U.S. spying, officials said.

Even those who criticized Clinton for moving too slowly on security at the Energy labs were impressed with the intelligence assessment.

"It was a thorough briefing," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., the committee's vice chairman, agreed. "There is both a failure and a success story in this evaluation," Kerry said, referring to the Chinese ability to steal U.S. nuclear secrets and the intelligence community's subsequent success in tracking down what China gained.