[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 7, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1070-S1072]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CHINESE NUCLEAR EXPORTS TO PAKISTAN

  Mr. PRESSLER. Mr. President, I want to bring to the attention of my 
colleagues some very disturbing developments in weapons proliferation 
in south Asia. Last year may go down in history as one of the worst 
years for the cause of nuclear nonproliferation. New evidence released 
this week merely reinforces this grave conclusion.
  On February 5 the Washington Times reported that, in 1995, Chinese 
defense industrial trading companies exported 5,000 ring magnets to 
Pakistan. Under the terms of an international agreement with the 
International Atomic Energy Agency, the export of ring magnets is 
strictly controlled because 

[[Page S1071]]
of the magnets' critical use in the production of nuclear weapons. 
Specifically, ring magnets are used in gas centrifuges, which are used 
to extract enriched, weapons-grade uranium from uranium gas.
  Just this morning, Mr. President, the Washington Post reported a 
similar story, finding that American intelligence officials believe 
there is no doubt that the transfers occurred. Chapter 10, section 101, 
of the Arms Export Control Act contains very severe penalties that are 
to be imposed on both the exporting country and the importing country 
for illicit nuclear transfers of this type. Specifically, the law 
states that no Federal assistance--economic or military--may be made 
available to either country. In the case of the receiving country, 
Pakistan, this would mean the suspension of economic and military 
assistance, including military training or the transfer of defense 
articles. In the case of the delivering country, the People's Republic 
of China, the operations of the United States Export-Import Bank would 
be blocked.
  These shocking revelations raise three fundamental issues:
  First, numerous officials in the Government of Pakistan have been 
quoted, as recently as 1995, that it was no longer enriching uranium 
for nuclear weapons production. In other words, Pakistan claimed it had 
frozen its bomb program. We could never verify those statements, but 
that was what we were led to believe. We now know differently.
  Second, the People's Republic of China has made a series of pledges 
to the United States with regards to the proliferation of weapons of 
mass destruction. Again, we now know differently.
  Finally, during most of 1995--when the transfer of nuclear technology 
from the People's Republic of China to Pakistan was taking place--
representatives of the Government of Pakistan and the Clinton 
administration were actively lobbying the Congress to weaken United 
States non-proliferation law to allow for a one time transfer of 
military equipment valued in excess of $370 million, as well as the 
resumption of nonmilitary aid. As we all know, last year the Senate 
passed the so-called Brown amendment, which authorized the transfer of 
this military equipment to Pakistan. It also repealed portions of the 
so-called Pressler amendment, a law which prohibited any United States 
assistance to the Government of Pakistan because of its possession of 
nuclear explosive devices.
  This last point--the passage of the Brown amendment--is particularly 
disturbing. I opposed the Brown amendment. I opposed it in part because 
it called for the transfer of military equipment without obtaining one 
single concession from Pakistan on the issue of nuclear proliferation. 
Frankly, if Members of Congress were aware of the ring sale--this 
violation of U.S. law --I do not believe the Brown amendment would have 
passed.
  It is unfortunate enough that our Nation would transfer to Pakistan, 
United States-made military equipment without any non-proliferation 
concession. Now we face the real and embarrassing prospect of having 
weakened United States non-proliferation law for Pakistan's benefit at 
the same time Pakistan was expanding its nuclear weapons capability in 
violation of United States law. This irony would be humorous if the 
issue wasn't so serious.
  Accordingly, in view of the confirmations of these transfers, I have 
written today to President Clinton urging that he enforce the law. 
Specifically, any contemplated transfer of military equipment to 
Pakistan, as called for in the Brown amendment, should cease 
immediately. Further, sanctions called for under the law also should be 
applied to Chinese exporting companies.
  Finally, Mr. President, it may be worth exploring if officials within 
the Clinton administration knew of this blatant violation of U.S. 
nonproliferation law while the administration was lobbying to pass the 
Brown amendment. And if they did, in fact, know it would be important 
to determine if they informed Members of Congress of this development. 
I intend to raise this matter with the chairman of the Intelligence 
Committee in the very near future.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that articles in the 
Washington Times of February 5 and the Washington Post of February 7 as 
well as my letter to the President of this date be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the articles were ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Washington Times, Feb. 5, 1996]

                     China Nuclear Transfer Exposed


                    Hill expected to urge sanctions

                            (By Bill Gertz)

       The CIA has uncovered new evidence China has violated U.S. 
     antiproliferation laws by exporting nuclear weapons 
     technology to Pakistan.
       Evidence that China has transferred ring magnets--used in 
     gas centrifuges that enrich uranium for weapons--is likely to 
     intensify congressional pressure on the Clinton 
     administration to impose sanctions as required by law.
       Last week, several senators asked the president in a letter 
     if China's sale of advanced cruise missiles to Iran, 
     disclosed Tuesday by Vice Adm. Scott Redd, commander of U.S. 
     naval forces in the Persian Gulf, also violates 
     counterproliferation laws.
       State Department officials are expected to confront Chinese 
     Vice Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, who arrives in Washington 
     today, over the nuclear technology and other weapons-
     proliferation exports.
       The administration in the past has sought to minimize 
     Chinese nuclear and missile-proliferation activities. But 
     senior State Department officials are said to be very worried 
     that China's proliferation activities can no longer be 
     ignored without undermining the credibility of U.S. efforts 
     to halt the spread of nuclear arms technology and missiles.
       ``The Chinese are their own worst enemy,'' a White House 
     official said when asked about the new proliferation 
     activities by Beijing.
       The CIA in 1992 obtained intelligence indicating China had 
     transferred M-11 missiles to Pakistan, including photographs 
     of missile canisters. But the State Department ruled there 
     was no proof missiles were inside, thereby avoiding having to 
     invoke tough sanctions.
       Instead, the department in 1993 applied much milder 
     sanctions for transferring what is said was M-11 technology, 
     and then lifted the sanctions after a year.
       According to intelligence sources, the CIA recently 
     notified the State Department that China sold 5,000 ring 
     magnets to the A.Q. Khan Research Laboratory in Kahuta, 
     Pakistan, last year.
       Officials did not further identify the originating firm in 
     China, but one congressional source said the magnets were 
     probably produced by the China National Nuclear Co., a 
     government-owned firm that makes nuclear-related products.
       CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield declined to comment when asked 
     about the Chinese transfer of nuclear technology. Spokesmen 
     for the Chinese and Pakistani embassies could not be reached 
     for comment.
       According to congressional sources, State Department 
     officials believe China's export of ring magnets violates the 
     Arms Export Control Act. Under an amendment to that law, the 
     1994 Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act, the president is 
     required to impose sanctions on any country that ``transfers 
     to a non-nuclear weapon state any design information or 
     component'' used in building nuclear arms.
       Gas centrifuges are used to extract enriched uranium from 
     uranium gas. Intelligence officials believe the magnets sent 
     to Pakistan will be used in special suspension bearings at 
     the top of a spinning chamber in the centrifuges.
       ``This is another example of the ruthless way the Chinese 
     are violating every nonproliferation pledge they've made to 
     us,'' said William C. Triplett, former chief counsel of the 
     Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
       On Wednesday, Sens. Larry Pressler of South Dakota, Alfonse 
     M. D'Amato of New York, Connie Mack of Florida and Arlen 
     Specter of Pennsylvania wrote to President Clinton about 
     Iran's test-firing a Chinese C-802 advanced anti-ship cruise 
     missile.
       ``Clearly, Adm. Redd's acknowledgment of the C-802 test-
     firing would appear to be an official recognition of an 
     illegal transfer to Iran to advanced conventional weapons by 
     Chinese defenses industrial trading companies,'' Mr. Pressler 
     said in a statement. ``This is a vital national security 
     matter and demands immediate attention.''
       In their letter, the four senators asked the president 
     either to ``enforce the sanctions pursuant to federal law or 
     to seek a waiver.''
       Under an amendment to the fiscal 1993 defense authorization 
     law, the president is required to impose sanctions on any 
     nation that transfers advanced conventional weapons to either 
     Iran or Iraq. The measure was sponsored by Sen. John McCain, 
     Arizona Republican, and Sen. Al Gore, Tennessee Democrat and 
     now vice president.
       Mr. McCain, in a separate letter to Undersecretary of State 
     Lynn Davis, the department's top arms-control policy-maker, 
     asked whether the Chinese cruise missile transfer to Iran 
     violates federal law and contributes to Iran's efforts to 
     acquire destabilizing advanced conventional arms.
       In the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat and a 
     member of the House Intelligence Committee, asked the 
     committee last week to hold hearings on China's proliferation 
     activities.
       It also was a key topic when several members of the House 
     International Relations 

[[Page S1072]]
     Committee met last week with Peter Tarnoff, undersecretary of state for 
     political affairs.
       The disclosures about export of missile and nuclear weapons 
     components come at a time of increased tensions between 
     Washington and Beijing.
       The State Department announced last week that it has 
     granted a visa to Taiwan's vice president, Li Yuan Zu. China 
     protested the action and has been threatening to use force to 
     recapture Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province, 
     not an independent country.
       Other Chinese activities that have severely eroded support 
     in Congress for a waiver of sanctions:
       The expulsion last week of three Chinese nationals from 
     Ukraine for trying to obtain secret technology on SS-18 ICBM 
     boosters from a missile-production facility in 
     Dnipropetrovsk.
       Ongoing copyright violations involving U.S. goods.
       Continued nuclear weapons testing.
       Dispatching missile technicians to Pakistan in 1994, 
     indicating the transfer of M-11 technology was still under 
     way at a time when China was denying such activities.
                                                                    ____


                [From the Washington Post, Feb. 7, 1996]

                  China Aids Pakistan Nuclear Program


    parts shipment reported by cia could jeopardize u.s. trade deals

                         (By R. Jeffrey Smith)

       U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that China sold 
     sensitive nuclear weapons-related equipment to Pakistan last 
     year, an act that could lead the Clinton administration to 
     halt U.S. government financing for nearly $10 billion worth 
     of American business deals in China.
       President Clinton's advisers are studying the intelligence 
     report to determine how they should respond, according to 
     several officials. Legislation approved by Congress in 1994 
     requires that he either approve the sanctions, which would 
     block loan guarantees by the U.S. Export-Import Bank, or 
     formally waive the penalties, once such an intelligence 
     report is received.
       In a previous arms transfer case, involving the alleged 
     sale of Chinese missiles to Pakistan, the State Department 
     ducked imposing sanctions by concluding that the evidence was 
     not strong enough. A senior official commenting yesterday at 
     the State Department about the new report of nuclear aid to 
     Pakistan, said that ``as of now'' the United States has not 
     determined that China has ``done anything that would trigger 
     sanctions under U.S. legislation.''
       But several other U.S. officials privy to the new 
     intelligence report said there is no doubt about its 
     conclusions, a circumstance that could put the administration 
     in a bind because it prefers to avoid damaging extensive U.S. 
     trade ties with China.
       The aim of the sanctions would be to punish China for 
     assisting Partisan's production of highly enriched uranium, a 
     key ingredient of nuclear weapons. But U.S. officials say the 
     nuclear transfer is only one of several recent actions by 
     China that may wind up disrupting its commercial and 
     diplomatic relations with the United States.
       China's export to Iran late last year of anti-ship cruise 
     missiles--confirmed last week by a senior U.S. Navy 
     official--may also qualify as a sanctionable offense, 
     according to some U.S. officials and lawmakers. Another U.S. 
     law requires broad economic penalties against any nation that 
     gives ``destabilizing numbers and types of advanced 
     conventional weapons'' to Iran, which Washington has branded 
     a terrorist nation.
       U.S. officials said that the number of missiles sold by 
     China may not be large enough to force the drastic cutoff of 
     development bank assistance, technical assistance, military 
     exchanges and sensitive exports mandated by the law. But four 
     senators recently wrote to Clinton to say that either 
     sanctions or a waiver are required in this case.
       In yet another sign of increasingly rocky U.S. relations 
     with China, some administration officials have raised the 
     prospect of imposing tariffs later this year on billions of 
     dollars in trade to protest China's refusal to halt illicit 
     copying of U.S. trademark goods.
       Washington is also trying to persuade China to adopt a less 
     threatening posture toward Taiwan. Beijing views the island 
     as a renegade province, but Taiwan receives U.S. arms and is 
     supported by many U.S. lawmakers because of its considerable 
     prosperity and political openness relative to China.
       ``There's a recognition that this is going to be a very 
     difficult year in U.S.-China relations,'' a senior State 
     Department official said. He explained that with China in the 
     midst of a difficult transition to new political leadership, 
     and ``our own domestic environment'' affected by an upcoming 
     presidential election, the two nations may find themselves 
     being pulled toward opposing positions on matters they 
     previously sidestepped or settled through compromise.
       Washington has long had concerns about Chinese military 
     assistance to Pakistan, which Beijing regards as an erstwhile 
     political ally and military counter-weight to India. U.S. 
     intelligence officials have long alleged that Pakistan's 
     nuclear arsenal is largely derived from design information 
     supplied by China, a charge that Beijing denies.
       U.S. intelligence reports have also pinpointed the apparent 
     location in Pakistan of crated, Chinese-made, medium-range 
     missiles, which if confirmed would force a cutoff of billions 
     of dollars worth of U.S.-China trade. But the administration 
     has decided that no sanctions need be invoked until the 
     missiles are sighted outside their crates.
       The latest Chinese nuclear-related transfer to Pakistan was 
     recently detected by the CIA and first reported publicly in 
     Monday's editions of the Washington Times. It involves a 
     shipment of 5,000 specialized magnets to the Abdul Qadeer 
     Khan Research Laboratory in Kahuta, named for the father of 
     the Pakistani nuclear bomb program.
       According to two knowledgeable officials, the magnets are 
     clearly meant to be installed in high-speed centrifuges at 
     the plant that enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.
       Several congressional sources said that the shipment thus 
     triggers provisions of the 1994 Nuclear Proliferation 
     Prevention Act, which forces ``a cutoff of Export-Import Bank 
     assistance'' involving trade with China.
       Among the large U.S. companies that would be affected by a 
     loan guarantee cutoff are Boeing Co., AT&T, and Westinghouse 
     Electric Corp.
       ``We do have genuine concerns about any possible nuclear-
     related transfers between China and Pakistan and we have 
     raised these concerns . . . at very senior levels,'' the 
     senior official said at the State Department.
       ``We will do whatever is required under U.S. law, but . . . 
     we have to have a very high degree of confidence in our 
     evidence,'' the official added. ``As of now we have not 
     determined that China . . . has done anything that would 
     trigger sanctions under U.S. legislation. But this is 
     obviously under continual review.''
                                                                    ____



                                                  U.S. Senate,

                                 Washington, DC, February 7, 1996.
     The President,
     The White House,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. President: The United States Intelligence 
     Community is confirming on background that the People's 
     Republic of China (PRC) has violated U.S. non-proliferation 
     laws by exporting nuclear weapons technology to Pakistan. 
     According to today's Washington Post, our intelligence 
     officials believe ``there is no doubt'' that an illicit 
     transfer has taken place.
       Specifically, the Washington Times first reported on 
     February 5 that, in 1995, Chinese defense industrial trading 
     companies sold 5,000 ring magnets to the Abdul Qadeer Khan 
     Research Laboratory in Kahuta, Pakistan. Under an 
     international agreement sponsored by the International Atomic 
     Energy Agency, the export of ring magnets is severely 
     restricted because of their critical use in nuclear weapons 
     production.
       This reported sale of nuclear technology raises two key 
     concerns many in Congress have held for some time: Contrary 
     to the most solemn declaration of the Government of Pakistan, 
     Pakistan is attempting to expand its supply of weapons-grade 
     enriched uranium, and Chinese companies are actively fueling 
     and profiting from a dangerous nuclear arms race in South 
     Asia.
       Chapter 10 of the Arms Export Control Act contains a set of 
     specific prohibitions governing illicit nuclear transfers. If 
     the President determines that a country has delivered or 
     received ``nuclear enrichment equipment, materials or 
     technology,'' no funds may be made available to that country 
     under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. This would include 
     all civilian and military equipment, including that provided 
     by the Brown Amendment to the Fiscal Year 1996 Foreign 
     Operations Appropriations Act. The prohibitions also extend 
     to military education and training.
       I ask that you make the determination called for by Chapter 
     10. Unquestionably, this sale of nuclear technology 
     represents a serious violation of federal law, as well as 
     international nuclear non-proliferation agreements.
       No issue is more important to the security of all people 
     than nuclear non-proliferation. For that reason, I urge your 
     Administration to take immediate and certain action to 
     enforce the law with respect to this sale of nuclear 
     technology and freeze all assistance, civilian or military, 
     to Pakistan. The sanctions called for under the law should be 
     applied to Chinese exporting companies.
           Sincerely,
                                                   Larry Pressler,
     U.S. Senator.

                          ____________________