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U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

.................

QUESTION: I know the Secretary was asked about this yesterday, but for the record here, can you tell us when the Secretary was informed about the investigation into allegations of Chinese espionage, and how concerned she was about the length of time the investigation was going on before she was brought into the mix?

MR. RUBIN: Well, the Secretary was not briefed at the appropriate time, and she has discussed that with her colleagues and that situation has been rectified. I am not in a position to give you the date of when she was first briefed, but she wasn't briefed at the same time as some of the other officials.

With respect to the issue in general, I think like all senior officials of the US government, we take very seriously allegations of espionage by the Chinese or anyone else. We have never had any illusions about the fact that China would like to get its hands on our military technologies, and that's why we have worked so hard to put in place very careful controls over military technology. And at the appropriate time after these briefings occurred, the President signed a directive to invigorate and clamp down on potential security breaches at the labs.

So, Secretary Albright believes that we're pursuing the problem with our eyes wide open, that this is a serious matter, that any time a county like China seeks to obtain high technology, and may have obtained some of it, which is a matter still under investigation, we are concerned. But I think everyone also has to bear in mind that it's still unclear to what extent any information China has received, certainly in the missile and satellite launching area, has proved as useful as information they've gotten from other governments. There's a tendency to not look very carefully at the facts.

The way we understand it is if you look at the broad array of information, certainly in the high-tech missile area, it is clear that the help they received from other governments was much more important than any potential help they might have received from violations of our export control laws. With respect to the nuclear side, I think the Department of Energy has been speaking to this and will continue to speak to it, especially after this report has been released.

(Briefing concluded at 1:40 p.m.)

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