A House committee has unanimously concluded that China systematically stole significant American nuclear design secrets, enabling Beijing to accelerate its weapons program so that it now possesses thermonuclear weapons design information on a par with the United States. The committee's report will be released next week. This summary came Thursday from officials who read the committee's final report or heard its findings in a closed Senate briefing on Wednesday. The stolen technology has allowed Beijing to leap in a few years from a 1950's-era nuclear capability to possessing the most modern technical information, the officials said.
China strongly denies the accusations.
Senators who attended the closed briefing, which was conducted by Representatives Christopher Cox, Republican of California, and Norm Dicks, Democrat of Washington State, said the findings were deeply disquieting. According to officials who have been briefed about its contents, the report concludes that Beijing's acquisition of secret American weapons designs was part of an intelligence collection effort that spanned 20 years, including both Republican and Democratic Administrations. The report also says that China stole design information about the neutron bomb. Building and deploying a nuclear weapons system requires more than design information, but such data is among the most closely guarded of American military secrets. Lott questioned why President Clinton and his Administration did not act sooner to prevent security breaches, and he criticized the White House for delaying the release of the Cox committee report.