{
  "id": "RL30220",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL30220",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 101858,
      "date": "1999-06-08",
      "retrieved": "2016-05-24T20:44:35.931941",
      "title": "China's Technology Acquisitions: Cox Committee's Report -- Findings, Issues, and Recommendations",
      "summary": "The House approved  H.Res. 463  on June 18, 1998, to create the Select Committee on\nU.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China\n(PRC). The committee's six-month investigation looked beyond whether the satellite export policy\nresulted in missile technology transfers to China; it also examined other transfers, including high\nperformance computers and nuclear weapon know-how. The committee made 38 recommendations\nfor action by Congress or the Administration. On December 30, 1998, the bipartisan committee\nunanimously approved the final classified report (issued on January 3, 1999). The committee then\nreleased a 3-volume declassified version on May 25, 1999. \n  According to the committee, the PRC has \"stolen\" classified information on the most advanced\nU.S. thermonuclear weapons, giving the PRC design information on thermonuclear weapons \"on a\npar with our own.\" The information includes classified information on seven warheads, including\n\"every currently deployed thermonuclear warhead in the U.S. ballistic missile arsenal;\" on the neutron\nbomb; and on \"a number of\" U.S. re-entry vehicles. The PRC acquired information on seven U.S.\nnuclear warheads, including the W88, the most advanced, miniature U.S. nuclear warhead deployed\non the Trident D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missile. The committee reported that U.S.\ninformation accelerated PRC nuclear weapon modernization and helping its efforts \"to fabricate and\nsuccessfully test its next generation of nuclear weapons designs. These warheads give the PRC small,\nmodern thermonuclear warheads roughly equivalent to current U.S. warhead yields.\" \n  The committee said that, after three failed satellite launches in 1992, 1995, and 1996, U.S.\nsatellite makers (Hughes and Loral) transferred missile design information and know-how to China\nwithout required export licenses from the Department of State \"in violation of the International\nTraffic in Arms Regulations.\" The firms gave technical information that has improved the \"reliability\"\nof Chinese rockets used to launch satellites with civilian and military purposes. The information is\nalso useful for the design and improved reliability of \"future PRC ballistic missiles.\" \n  There are a number of questions for possible further study raised by the report, including\nimplications for U.S. national security arising from the status of Chinese nuclear weapons, missiles,\nintelligence, and military technology. The report noted that \"the United States retains an\noverwhelming qualitative and quantitative advantage in deployed strategic nuclear forces\" over the\nPRC's up to two dozen CSS-4 ICBMs. Nonetheless, the report stated that \"in a crisis in which the\nUnited States confronts the PRC's conventional and nuclear forces at the regional level, a modernized\nPRC strategic nuclear ballistic missile force would pose a credible direct threat against the United\nStates.\" The Cox report also noted that \"assessing the extent to which design information losses\naccelerated the PRC's nuclear weapons development is complicated because so much is unknown.\" \nRepresentative Spratt of the Cox Committee said that \"it is a reach to say that `stolen U.S. nuclear\nsecrets give the PRC design information on thermonuclear weapons on a par with our own'.\" He also \nnoted that the report \"concludes that China's rockets and missiles may have gained reliability, but not\nrange, payload, or accuracy.\"",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
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      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Foreign Affairs",
    "Intelligence and National Security",
    "National Defense"
  ]
}