Beijing says that 63 US surveillance aircraft have been reported in Chinese coastal areas so far this year, and that the total last year was 950. Documents declassified by the National Security Archive in Washington only this week show a long list of perilous stand-offs between the US and China. The effectiveness of spy planes has been questioned, with satellite surveillance able to analyse the Chinese nuclear arsenal in detail. Listening stations in South Korea, Japan and Australia intercept radio transmissions and telephone conversations. But the deployment of 'old-fashioned' agents working in China is on the increase and over the past three years the use of spy planes has been stepped up, a former National Security Agency official under the Clinton Administration conceded to The Observer this week.
China is suspected of developing a sophisticated nuclear arsenal based on stolen technology.
The DIA believes Chinese espionage has penetrated deep within Los Alamos and other installations. A Congressional committee concluded in 1999 that China was in possession of information on 'every currently deployed thermonuclear warhead in the US ballistics missile arsenal', and that a network of agents was operating through 3,000 front companies. China's goal, say officials briefing The Observer, is to build mobile long-range missiles that are difficult to detect and destroy. The Clinton Administration, anxious to develop trading ties with a market of 1.3 billion people, had avoided confrontation. But Bush moved rapidly with policies which angered the Chinese.