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The US-Concocted "Cox Report":
A Farce to Instigate Anti-China Feelings and Undermine Sino-US Relations

(May 31, 1999)

A number of American anti-China politicians,represented by Christopher Cox, dished out a tedious so-called investigation report on May25, after more than half a year of careful scheming. The report alleges that thesophisticated national defense technology and major scientific and technologicalachievements related to national economic progress developed independently by Chinathrough self-reliance are "stolen'' or illegally "acquired'' from the UnitedStates. The Chinese Government and people are strongly indignant over this groundlessattack that fabricates facts and confuses black and white.

The Cox Report, however, claims that "the People'sRepublic of China employs all types of people, organizations, and collection operations toacquire sensitive technology. Threats to national security can come from PRC scientists,students, business people or bureaucrats, in addition to professional civilian andmilitary intelligence operations.'' This is a great slander against the Chinese nation andis typical racial prejudice. China is a large country with a long history of civilization.The Chinese nation is an industrious and ingenious nation. China has always relied on itsown efforts to handle its own affairs. Never did China in the past, nor does it atpresent, nor will it in the future, base its development of the sophisticated nationaldefense technology related to national security and interests on the "theft'' oftechnology from other countries. China relies on its own forces to independently developits national defense technology. This is a basic principle China has persisted.

As everybody knows, during the years when the UnitedStates imposed an all-round blockade and used nuclear blackmail against China, Chinarelied on its own efforts to develop atom bombs, missiles, satellites and othersophisticated national defense technology. In the 15 years before China and the UnitedStates established diplomatic relations, on June 29, 1964, China successfully launched thefirst domestically developed surface-to-surface missile, and on October 16 the same year,China successfully exploded its first atom bomb. In the 12 years before the establishmentof Sino-US diplomatic relations, on June 17, 1967, China exploded its first H-bomb. Duringthe nine years before the establishment of Sino-US diplomatic relations, on April 24,1970, China successfully launched its own man-made earth satellite. These facts indicatethat China has a full capacity to independently develop any sophisticated national defensetechnology. Cox and other anti-China politicians in the United States, turning a blind eyeto these facts, have tried their best to belittle and deny the Chinese people innovativecapacity in developing sophisticated national defense technology.

The Cox Report attacks China for extensively"stealing'' various military technologies of the United States over a long period.But, terms of conjecture such as "seemingly'', "presumably'', "if","perhaps'', "probably'' and "perhaps in the future'', can be foundthroughout the report while offering no substantive evidence. Without any solid, concretefacts, they even claim China "stole" US sensitive technology in an organized andextensive way that threatens the national security of the United States. This is utterlyabsurd. This sensational conclusion does not hold water. The Cox Report also brands suchnormal academic activities as investigating and studying open materials and internationalacademic exchanges as "stealing'' US technological secrets. This is extremelyridiculous. It uses the method of first maintaining that China displays the behavioralpattern of "stealing'', and then fabricating facts subjectively by scraping togetherdeliberately concocted information. By the way, I?d like to tellyou a fact that the concept Simulated Nuclear Explosion by Laser used in the Cox Reportwas developed on the basis of ?ICF??InertialConfinement Fusion by Laser?, which was originally advanced byMr. Wang Ganchang of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1964. China has never said that theuse of this theory by other countries is a theft of technology.

China has been relying on its own efforts tomanufacture and develop its nuclear weapons. China has never, as the Cox Report claims,"stolen'' secrets from the US nuclear weapons laboratory. Performance data on theseven types of nuclear warheads--W56, W62, W70, W76, W78, W87 and W88--have long beenopenly published in the United States. They are no longer secrets, so there is nothing to"steal''. For instance, the US Nuclear Forces and Capability, the first volume of theNuclear Weapons Databook, written by Tomas B. Cochran and others in 1984, and US NuclearWeapons: The Secret History, written by Chuck Hansen in 1988, all make a detailedintroduction to the aforementioned nuclear warheads' power, weight, length, diameter,materials, circular error probability and other relevant data, as well as developmentunits, supporting carrier system and the armed services to be equipped. The writersspecifically pointed out that all the materials they quoted came from the records of thehearings of the US Congress, the three major nuclear laboratories of the US Department ofEnergy and the US Department of Defense, in order to emphasize the authority andreliability of the books. Moreover, in recent years, performance data about various typesof nuclear warheads, ranging from the early MK-1 to the latest W88, can easily be found onthe Internet.

The Cox Report says the United States has conductedabout 1,030 nuclear tests, while China has only carried out 45 such tests. But, China hasdeveloped advanced thermal nuclear warheads technologically similar to those of the UnitedStates. Here, the report, humming and hawing, drops a hint that China has achieved this by"stealing'' US nuclear technology, otherwise, the achievement would be impossible.This kind of logic is quite ridiculous. According to it, any scientific and technologicalachievements attained by other countries, particularly those developed faster than theUnited States, come from technology "stolen'' from the United States. This is wildlyarrogant. It only took China two years and eight months to go from the explosion of thefirst atom bomb to that of the first H-bomb. China achieved this under the condition ofsevere US blockade. This fact, perhaps, cannot be denied by certain anti-China politiciansin the United States.

The Cox Report also offers a large number ofdistortions about China's space undertakings. China began developing its own space programduring the period of embargo and blockade by Western countries. China's space sector hasdeveloped by totally relying on its own strength. Without any foreign assistance, Chinahas independently developed intermediate and short-range missiles, long-range rockets,submarine-launched solid-propellant rockets, recoverable satellites, the technology tolaunch multiple satellites atop a single rocket, and geostationary communicationsatellites. When China announced it would enter into the international commercialsatellite launching market, the country already had the experience of 20 successfullaunches, giving it the ability to launch all kinds of satellites in high, medium and loworbits. China launched the first international commercial satellite in 1990. Launched bythe Long March-III carrier rocket, the "Asiasat I'' satellite made by the HughesCorp. achieved the most accurate orbit insertion precision among the 31 satellites in thesame category launched by the company to that date. The aforementioned facts alldemonstrate that the space technology of China has already ranked among the world's toplevel.

Commercial satellite launching represents the peacefuluse of space technologies and is a normal commercial activity based on mutual benefit. TheCox Report slanders China by saying it had "acquired'' US missile guidance technologythrough commercial launches to promote the development of its own missiles. This is atotally deceptive statement that substitutes one thing for another. Although China alreadyhad the high-precision missile guidance technology, people with even slight scientificknowledge will know that commercial satellite launches require only an economic andrational guidance system with moderate precision, instead of the high-precision guidancesystem needed for ballistic missiles. It is understandable if it is a non-professional whois saying that the precision of the missile guidance system can be improved throughcommercial launches. But it is very surprising that such a statement comes from theso-called investigation report of the Special Committee of the US Congress. The Cox Reportuses many pages to exaggerate China's failures in commercial satellite launches in 1995and 1996. It alleges that because the reasons for the failures were all determined underthe guidance of American experts, China could improve its carrier-rocket technology andthen apply it to its missiles. It is sheer nonsense. The rocket has been developed byChina itself, and the various flight data are kept by the Chinese. The Chinese have beenindependently developing rockets for more than 30 years, during which time they haveexperienced numerous successes and failures. Do they still need others' guidance forclearing up any errors? Moreover, the Chinese cannot easily give out the details of theirown rocket design. How can the Americans who don't know the ins and outs of the thing giveany guidance? Since China has the ability to independently develop the carrier rocket, itcertainly has the ability to solve the problems related to its flight technology. Chinahas never, and has no such need to "acquire'' the sensitive technology of the UnitedStates through the investigation of errors.

China launches the US satellites strictly in accordancewith the agreement between the governments of the two countries. The security of US-madesatellites was under the strict 24-hour control of the US side. However, the Cox Reportclaims, "It would be surprising if the PRC has not exploited security lapses whileUS-built satellites and associated equipment and documents were in the PRC.'' This isreally surprising to wantonly make such a subjective assumption, especially when it isunable to prove that China has stolen sensitive US technology through commercial launches.

The Cox Report not only slanders China "stealing''US nuclear weapon and missile technology, but also charges that China has applied theadvanced US technologies in the areas of high-performance computer, civil aviation andprecision machinery for military purposes. And, based on this, it suggests the UnitedStates intensify control over the export of dual-purpose commodities and technology toChina. It even unreasonably demands China should establish a so-called open andtransparent system which enables American nationals designated by the United States toexamine on the spot the end-users without advance notice. This is a hegemonic act thatdisregards China's sovereignty and violates the basic norms governing internationalrelations. China by no means agrees with this.

A short time ago, the US-led NATO used missiles toattack the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, which has been strongly condemned by the ChineseGovernment and people and the international community. It seems totally intentional thatthe Cox Report was published under current circumstances. It is another adverse currentagainst China among the series of anti-China events created by some people in the UnitedStates over recent years. Their purpose is to divert public attention, fan anti-Chinafeelings, defame China's image and try to hold back Sino-US relations so as to stopChina's development. This attempt is doomed to fail.

China will unswervingly persist in taking economicconstruction as the central task, adhere to reform and opening, and stick to theindependent foreign policies of self-reliance and peace. China is a peace-loving country.China develops its scientific and technological undertakings and its national defensestrength for the purpose of safeguarding national security and interests, and maintainingState sovereignty and world peace. China opposes hegemonism, and China will never seekhegemony.