In the category of you-heard-it-here-first: The State Department has announced it is charging Lockheed Martin with violating the Arms Export Control Act by providing Chinese companies with information on satellite rocket technology that could be used to improve ballistic missile capabilities. Almost two years ago, in the wake of similar charges against Loral Space and Hughes Electronics, Henry Sokolski wrote in these pages ("Selling China the Rope . . . ," June 1, 1998) that Lockheed Martin's assistance to the Chinese launch industry also needed investigating. As Sokolski pointed out, however, the scandal is not limited simply to the transfer of valuable rocket know-how. Every time a U.S. corporation pays tens of millions to launch a satellite on a Chinese rocket, it subsidizes the very entities that are building new and improved missiles aimed at Los Angeles and Taipei. Even rocket scientists should be able to understand this point.
In a related matter, it's clear no one is going to accuse the new U.S. ambassador to China, former commander in chief of America's Pacific forces, retired Admiral Joseph Prueher, of being a rocket scientist. The ambassador recently hosted a friendly get-together for the three U.S. corporations under investigation and the state-owned Chinese company that runs that nation's missile programs. Who says ambassadors have outlived their usefulness?