Rep. Dana Rohrabacher
"Horrific Implications of the USA-China Missile Launch Cooperation
"This has implications about the safety of every one of our families."
What I am saying is as serious as anything that I have ever said in the 10 years that I have been a Member of Congress. As chairman of the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, it is my responsibility to oversee NASA and America's space effort. Because of this, I have a certain degree of knowledge about missiles and rockets. This expertise allowed me to understand the horrific implications of the cooperation between American companies and the Chinese in the improvement of the Chinese aerospace launch systems which I first heard about several months ago.
The story probably began several years ago when I was asked to support an effort then being made by Hughes Electronics to assist in their sales of communication satellites to China. Some countries like China were insisting on launching purchased satellites, satellites that had been purchased from Hughes on their own rockets.
It made sense to me that setting up a telecommunication system for China was a good idea. Launching these satellites up there, putting the satellites up so they could have a telephone system and they make long distance calls and such, that was a good idea, would connect them to the rest of the world. It would link them to the world, and our folks would make a profit in doing it, so why not give them permission? It was a good idea.
Was it a good idea for our U.S. firms to launch satellites on foreign rockets? Well, yes, they could do so if they were willing to do it at their own risk.
I supported the request. But at no time did I or anyone else in Congress support the idea that any American company or any American citizen should be upgrading Chinese rockets to launch those satellites; and that, my friends, looks like what has happened. Americans and American companies using their skill and their technology, some of it developed by American tax dollars during the Cold War, being used to upgrade the capabilities of Chinese rockets and missiles.
The Chinese Communist regime who was unable to hit us with rockets and missiles 5 years ago, I am very sad to say, now has the capability of landing nuclear weapons transported by rockets landing those nuclear weapons in the United States, and we are the ones who perfected their rockets.
In a nutshell, until last year, the Chinese Long March Rocket had a shaky history of misfires, explosions and unreliability. It took three or four Long March Rocket launches to complete one successful mission. That is why it was a shock to learn a few months ago that the Long March now is more reliable. It has, it seems, been perfected.
This became evident when I heard that two satellites from Motorola's iridium project were launched into orbit, and it only took two Long March Rockets to do it. Two out of two successful shots. How could this be, I asked myself? And then I got a sinking feeling in my stomach that I knew the answer.
I will tell my colleagues how it could be. After the blow-up of a Long March Rocket, a team of American engineers working for an American firm sat down and rolled up their sleeves in what they treated as nothing more than an engineering project. They thought that what they were doing was just engineering. And when it was all over, the Red Chinese had the ability to reliably put into orbit commercial satellites.
That alone was a betrayal of American aerospace workers who built competitive launch systems like the Delta Rocket. And by the way, the Delta Rocket just happens to be built in my congressional district. So for us to upgrade their rocket capability using our technology, that was a betrayal in and of itself of the economic responsibility we have to watch out for our own people.
But putting their fellow American aerospace workers out of jobs is not all these companies did by helping the Chinese upgrade their missiles. They put all of us in the crosshairs of a Communist Government, which, thanks to this assistance, now has the ability not just to put satellites into space, but to deliver nuclear weapons to a majority of American cities.
When this realization first hit me, it knocked the wind right out of my lungs. I could hardly breathe. And when I queried an executive from one of the corporations who were involved in upgrading this Chinese missile capability, he quickly stated that I should not worry, because he understood that his company was operating with a national security waiver signed by the President of the United States. He did not say that he had seen this waiver personally.
The engineering achievement this gentleman talked about was Rocket Stage Separation technology and Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicle technology. If my colleagues cannot understand it, the first one is the stage technology that permits the stages of the rockets to separate; the last one I talked about is called MIRV technology.
But before these technologies were given to the Chinese, the Long March would often blow up, and they would blow up when the stages tried to separate, and if it survived the stages' separation and made it into space, there was often a problem with the satellite dispenser. That is where the MIRV technology comes in.
So the American companies proceeded to provide stage separation technology as well as technology that enabled the rocket to spit out satellites, or nuclear warheads, whichever the Communist Chinese might want to use on any particular day.
About the same time, and perhaps as part of the same team, even perhaps as part of the same effort, two other aerospace firms were involved in a project to upgrade and perfect the Long March Rocket's flight control and guidance systems. Apparently an electrical flaw had caused a malfunction which blew up a Long March Rocket attempting to launch a satellite by Loral Space and Communications of Manhattan. Again, the American technological cavalry came to the rescue.
Engineers from Loral, assisted by engineers from Hughes Electronics, and at the direction of their superiors, charged forward to correct the problems in the Long March. It seems what happened was a sterile, coldly calculated decision to fix these problems with no consideration of the national security implications to the United States.
One must hope that no consideration was given to our security, because if there was consideration given to our security, it means these company officials said to themselves, to hell with the safety of every man, woman and child in the United States; this is a lucrative contract and we are not going to lose it. Well, where the hell do they think they are going to go home to once the contract is over?
A few years ago it was unlikely that the Chinese Communists could threaten us with a nuclear strike. Confronting their misdeeds then could be accomplished with limited risk. Our leaders have tremendous leverage to prevent aggression and to keep the lid on volatile situations. Now, all of that has changed, much of it due perhaps to the assistance to the Chinese Communists by American citizens and American companies.
In a recent report by the U.S. National Air Force Intelligence Center, that report indicates that China now has a new three-stage intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach every State in our country, except southern Florida. The report states that these missiles carry only a single warhead. But the Communists are close to producing a new system with multiple independent reentry vehicles, MIRVs. The security of our country will never be the same.
The young people who are watching on their televisions or are here with us tonight, their lives will be far less secure than it ever would have been had we not permitted this to happen. The security that people expected that we would take into consideration was not part of the equation. Unfortunately, the young people of our country now will have to live under a cloud that they could be pulverized by nuclear weapons sent from mainland China on a rocket that American technology helped build for our adversaries.
In May 1997, the Pentagon produced a classified report on missile expertise transferred to China which concluded that the United States national security was probably damaged by the Loral-Hughes technology transfers I have just described. This was followed by an investigation into the deal by the U.S. Justice Department. Then, only a few weeks ago it was revealed by the press that a Federal grand jury was investigating Loral and Hughes for possible violations of law in this outrageous transfer of weapons know-how to the Communist Chinese.
Now comes the kicker of this story. President Clinton and his administration have been doing everything they can to quash the investigation of this possible violation of law, this betrayal of our country. According to press accounts, Justice Department officials claim that 2 months ago, their investigation was seriously undermined when President Clinton quietly approved the export to China of similar rocketry expertise by Loral. Our President cut the legs out right from under the law enforcement agencies trying to investigate this matter, a matter which is obviously of great importance to our national security.
This move reflects a horrifyingly cavalier attitude toward the safety of our people from the nuclear weapons capabilities of the Communist Chinese, or it could be even worse. Worse? Yes, worse than a cavalier attitude about the Chinese Communists being able to hit us with nuclear weapons. What is worse than that? An attitude that is not cavalier, but it was a conscious decision.
The CEO of Loral is Bernard Schwartz. This gentleman also has the distinction of being one of the largest single contributors to President Clinton's reelection campaign; and unlike other aerospace companies, would strive to have a balanced portfolio of campaign contributions. This company obviously had its man, and his name was Bill Clinton.
Mr. Schwartz was the largest individual contributor to the Democratic Party in 1997, and in 1996, together with Loral and Hughes Companies, contributed $2.5 million to the Democratic Party that we know about, almost triple their contributions that they gave to the Republican Party.
We are also aware of the likelihood that the Communist Chinese had contributions of their own that made their way into President Clinton's campaign coffers. The total dollar figure is unknown, it is unknown because those who have that information are currently on the lam. They are hiding so they will not have to testify as to Chinese Communist money going into President Clinton's campaign. Many of them have left the country, and those who have come back are looking for immunity to testify before Congress, but they are now in the process of having their immunity denied by Democrat Members of this body who are part of the investigating committee. They will not grant them immunity, because they do not want that information coming out.
What, if any, have these Chinese Communist donations purchased? Direct evidence is sketchy, but we do know that since President Clinton was elected in November 1992, China has violated its nonproliferation commitments no less than 20 times according to the Congressional Research Service.
In response, the administration has only twice imposed sanctions in accordance with U.S. law, and in one of these cases, the sanctions were waived in one of these cases after only 1 year. In addition, China has repeatedly transferred or discussed transferring weapons of mass destruction to rogue nations such as Iran and Libya, after assuring our country that all such actions had ceased.
Today, it is Israel's 50th anniversary. Fifty years, Israel has been in conflict for 50 years. One of the greatest threats to Israel is what? Rockets that can hit their targets fired at them from extremist countries and terrorist countries like Iran. And yet, President Clinton seems to have undercut the investigations and greased the skids for providing the Communist Chinese technology that, even after the Chinese have repeatedly provided technology to people like the Iranians and others who are enemies not only of the United States, but enemies of Israel.
In giving the Iranians guidance system technology for rockets, this is quite a birthday present for Israel, and quite a birthday present for anybody in the Western world who sides with the United States and sides with the Western democracies.
And of course now, the administration claims, we are going to reach out again and accept the Chinese Communist word again that they will not do it anymore, they will not give any more information, and in exchange for that agreement not to give any more information, we are going to give them all the rest of our technological secrets. We are going to extend the cooperation with the Communist Chinese to a greater extent than it has ever been. That is a proposal right now going on that the President is preparing to offer when he goes to China next month. This is a travesty, it is a travesty.
In this atmosphere, President Clinton will go to China next month, and the papers suggest that he is going to offer the Communist Chinese to share with them our space technology if they just agree not to transfer it to others. This, of course, is nonsense on the face of it. We are going to share our technology with someone who has already given it to our enemies, somebody who themselves are a Communist dictatorship and one of the worst violators of human rights on this planet? People who are torturing Christians and other believers, we are going to give our space technology to them?
Well, I suggest that this is nonsense on the face of it, and that is not what this is all about. This proposal by the President, I believe, is trying to do something that he did before when he undercut the investigation into Loral and Hughes. What this is is trying to offer a mask, this new policy the administration is offering, is doing nothing more than trying to give a mask to deeds that have already been done, just as the move in granting Loral approval to transfer rocket technology undercut the investigation into the wrongdoing that they have already done.
So in other words, this grandiose plan that we have read about in the newspapers may well be nothing more than a cover for misdeeds that have already taken place because the President knows that this information is going to come out about American technology being used by Chinese Communists to build their rockets which are aimed in our direction. The President knows how volatile that is, and the story has been coming out slowly but surely, and this speech tonight I think will even accelerate the information about this terrible betrayal of America's interests.
What seems to have happened is that instead of civilizing the communist Chinese, our engagement with that government has corrupted our democracy. Instead of providing us wealth, it has undercut our domestic production and has transferred our technology to our adversaries. Instead of promoting peace, it has massively extended the raw destructive power of a regime that remains one of this world's worst human rights offenders and a country that threatens the peace and stability of the planet.
A recent confirmation of that expanded destructive power comes from General Haber, a commander of the U.S. Strategic Command. General Haber recently stated, and I quote, 'The Chinese do have the deployment of an intercontinental missile that can reach most of the United States, except for southern Florida.'
Because of this new threat from communist China, because it is so overwhelming, this speech is going to be only the first of many I will make on the subject. But let me add one point here.
Here we have a President and an administration that is willing to undercut investigations into these companies and he may well, for all we know, by his own attitude have fostered an idea among these companies that they could get away with this type of betrayal of America's interests. Perhaps they saw the President and his dealings with China and how he makes a joke out of human rights, and they thought why should they consider America's national security interests.
But this is the same group of people, the President of the United States and his administration, who because of what they have done, now that the communist Chinese have the ability to hit our country with nuclear weapons, this is the same President that has gone out of his way to prevent us from developing a defense system that would defend us against an attack a missile attack. This is the same administration that has done everything they can to prevent the Republicans from developing a missile defense system for the United States of America and for our allies. The standard is incredible. It is overwhelming. It still almost takes the air out of my lungs when I think about this.
I mean, just where is the interest of the American people? Who is concerned about it? Who is protecting us? It certainly is not people who would permit the technology that was developed during the Cold War for our own weapons systems to be handed over to the communist Chinese even before they have had any liberalization of their system.
Once the American people realize what has happened, I predict a wave of outrage will sweep across our country, even to Florida, even though they are the only ones who have not been made vulnerable by this. Though the Floridians cannot be hit by land-based missiles, the folks down there understand that being an American is more important than the almighty dollar and they understand that being an American is something special and they would never betray the interests of their country.
It seems like some of our citizens, including some prominent individuals, may have forgotten that and may be operating at a much lower level of value than that.
Perhaps President Clinton really was converted to the theory and convinced that these gangsters who now control the mainland of China could be civilized by luring them into economic dependency and technological dependency. If we make them economically dependent and so technologically dependent by giving them technology and building their economy up, that that will make things better. Maybe he really believes that.
Maybe he believes that once that happens and they have prosperity, that their iron fist can be unclenched because we will have proven to them our sincere desire for peace and, therefore, the insecurity and the vulnerability that the Chinese have, that will be satisfied and they can disarm and they will longer be this monstrous totalitarian regime that they are.
Let us give the President the benefit of the doubt. Maybe that is what he believes. That is the most foolish thing that I have ever heard, but I have heard it expressed so many times that we are going to have to give people good motives. But whether they have good motives or not, let us look at what is happening here. These are the same type of assurances and feeling that Neville Chamberlain gave the people of England about the Nazi regime shortly before the bombings of London that caused World War 11. World War 11 was brought on by people trying to prove their sincerity to Hitler. Let him take the Rhineland back. Let us prove to him that he can take these territories. Where there is any question at all, always give him the benefit of the doubt. And our businessmen did business with Hitler and Hirohito up until the day that World War 11 started.
Mr. Speaker, these things did not make Hitler and the dictators in Japan and Italy any less aggressive or less likely to cause war. These things actually are foolishness and nonsense, and trying to prove that we were not a threat did just the opposite to these bosses.
We must never forget that the real reason for the communist Chinese and their monstrously bad human rights record, and for their continued military buildup, and for the unrelenting repression in China of Christians and Muslims and Buddhists, and for the continued genocide that is going on in Tibet, the main reason this is happening is the fundamental nature of the communist regime, the vile nature of their own political system. It is meant to be a communist dictatorship. They have never stepped back one inch from the idea that they will control their society with an iron fist.
Just the other day we read about what? It came out in the paper, I guess it was today in fact, a rock and roll singer was arrested in Hong Kong. And why? The rock and roll figure was arrested and put into prison because he is a threat to that country's national security. A rock and roll singer. Yes.
And Christians, and Muslims, and Buddhists, and the Dalai Lama's followers and anyone else who would speak up against this system. Any artist who would dare to show their work without permission. Anyone who would say anything against the regime outside of the communist party structure.
The solution that we need to have is not to try to prove our sincerity to the communist Chinese. We need to work with the people of China to overthrow and eliminate this corrupt, this vile, this tyrannical system and kick out these people who oppress them. The younger people in China do not believe in this, just like the younger people in Russia did not. Our goal should not be trying to give legitimacy and trying to make them not feel threatened by giving them our technology. That will only result in America being placed in jeopardy. It will only result in our people living less prosperous lives and now our people living under a cloud, under a threat of nuclear attack when rive years ago they were not.
The solution, of course, is ending their system and bringing them in and demanding, demanding, yes demanding that there be real changes for us to have any closer relationships with them.
Finally, let me just summarize what we have talked about tonight, what I have talked about tonight. Tonight, we have opened a discussion which I believe will continue and intensify in the weeks ahead. I have given details about a transfer of American technology by American companies to the communist Chinese. This transfer of American technology has perfected communist Chinese rocket systems which now enables these communist Chinese rockets to reach targets in the United States of America.
When Bill Clinton was elected President of the United States, the communist Chinese could not launch with a rocket from the mainland of China on a nuclear attack of the United States. They are now capable of that. The MIRV technology which our companies transferred to them also permits these same rockets not to carry a single warhead but to have several warheads. The same technology that spits out a satellite can be used to spit out nuclear warheads.
There was an investigation into this transfer of technology, an investigation by government officials who were convinced that America's national security had been put in jeopardy and that the law had been violated. President Clinton took actions that undermined and undercut that investigation.
At least one of the heads of the U.S. companies that were providing this technology to the communist Chinese is one of President Clinton's biggest campaign contributors and indeed the biggest campaign contributor to the Democratic Party in 1996. We do not know about the campaign contributions from the communist Chinese to President Clinton's campaign in the last presidential reelection campaign because the witnesses are on the lam, and the Democratic Party Members in the investigating committee are refusing to grant them immunity so that they can tell their story to the American people.
I do not like to come to the floor of the House to talk about something so horrendous as this. This has implications about the safety of every one of our families. I hope that everyone who is reading this in the Congressional Record and I hope that everyone who is seeing this on CSPAN will make sure they contact their Member of Congress and make it clear that we should get to the bottom of this. And I assure my colleagues that this is one Member of Congress that will not stop until we get all of the information about this horrendous transfer of weapons and technology that has put us in jeopardy. Speaker Gingrich and others now are in the process of requesting the information, and if this administration does not cooperate there will be hearings on this subject.
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