Chinese rocket fuel lands US scientist in jail
By Peter J Brown
China is looking forward to many accomplishments in space over the coming
decade, while Shu Quan-Sheng, the physicist and corporate executive from
Virginia arrested in September for selling American space technology to
Beijing, is looking at up to 25 years in prison.
Shu faces 10 years in jail and a fine of $1 million for each of two violations
of the Arms Export Control Act, and a maximum sentence of five years in prison
and a fine of $250,000 for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when he
is sentenced next April.
From 2003 to 2007 he provided China with "assistance in the
design and development of a cryogenic fueling system for space launch vehicles
to be used at the heavy payload launch facility located in the southern island
province of Hainan", according to a US Department of Justice (DOJ) press
release.
Hainan Island is where China will soon start constructing its first coastal
rocket launch facility, known as the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center (Wenchang
SLC). Larger and far closer to the equator than any other launch site in China,
it will be well suited for launching large satellites into geosynchronous
orbit, in which the satellite maintains its relative position to the earth as
the earth rotates.
In January 2007, the Chinese awarded a $4 million hydrogen liquefier project at
the Wenchang SLC to a French company that Shu represented.
When this facility is completed, it will replace the Xichang SLC as China's
primary launch facility for large satellites heading into geosynchronous orbit,
as well as other large spacecraft. Xichang SLC will then be scaled back to play
a backup role. China has two other launch centers, the Jiuquan SLC, also called
the Shuang Cheng Tzu Missile and Space Test Center, and the Taiyuan SLC, also
called the Wuzhai Missile and Space Test Center.
In early November, the People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Chinese
Communist Party, reported the feasibility study of Wenchang SLC had recently
been approved by the Chinese government, and that construction was planned to
start soon. It described the facility as "the first Chinese launch center
completely open to the world … a site for extensive international cooperation …
one of the top three spaceports in the world".
DOJ further stated that, "Shu has been involved in the PRC's [People's Republic
of China] systematic effort to upgrade their space exploration and satellite
technology capabilities by providing technical expertise and foreign technology
acquisition in the fields of cryogenic pumps, valves, transfer lines and
refrigeration equipment, components critical for the use of liquefied hydrogen
in a launch facility. Shu has also been instrumental in arranging for PRC
officials to visit various European space launch facilities and hydrogen
production/storage facilities."
Shu is a native of China, a naturalized US citizen, and, president, secretary
and treasurer of the Virginia-based AMAC International Inc (AMAC), which has
offices in China. He is described on the AMAC website as an "an expert in
Cryogenics, Superconducting Radio Frequency cavities and Superconducting
magnets. He is currently a Board Member for the International Institute of
Refrigeration, Sub-Program Chairman of the US Applied Superconductivity
Conference …"
The AMAC web site describes the company as "operating at the cutting edge of
technology. Based on AMAC's excellent accomplishments in Research &
Development of Superconducting RF Power Technologies, Magnetic Levitation and
Cryogenics in space, AMAC has been awarded more than $2 million in innovative
research grants from the US Department of Energy and National Aeronautics and
Space Administration.
"AMAC's other research and development interests include: applications of
nanotubes and shape memory alloys. We also enjoy providing technical
consultation and project management to various institutes."
The fact that AMAC was eager and willing to do a brisk business in China was
spelled out in a company press release, which stated, "AMAC decided to add an
International Department that would focus on helping manufacturers export their
products to Asian [sic]. With this new addition, AMAC represents more than 17
companies and welcomes any new opportunities. Due to our success in producing
sales for our clients, AMAC opened a branch office in Beijing and has
representatives in many cities throughout China. Our Beijing Office allows AMAC
to better serve our customers."
According to Rick Fisher, senior fellow at the International Assessment and
Strategy Center in Washington, DC, the information Shu provided to China
appears to have been extremely valuable to the new Long March CZ-5 heavy space
launch vehicle program.
"If this is true, then the technology that Shu [passed along to China] would
have eventually aided China's future space station and manned moon exploration
programs," said Fisher.
One of the reasons for China's downgrading of Xichang is that big rockets like
the CZ-5, which is designed to carry very heavy payloads, cannot be transported
easily there by truck or by rail. Wenchang SLC, being on the coast, has no such
problem.
Several Chinese agencies are identified in DOJ's criminal complaint, including
the People's Liberation Army's General Armaments Department and the China
Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology's 101st Research Institute (101
Institute). Ultimately, all the arrows point to the Commission of Science
Technology and Industry for the National Defense.
Also named is the Beijing Special Engineering Design Research Institute, which
oversees procurement of cryogenic liquid storage tanks for the Wenchang SLC.
"Shu's efforts include the successful brokering of a January 2007 contract
between the PRC's 101 Institute and a French company for the production and
supply of a 600 liter per hour hydrogen liquefier. This liquefier will be part
of the 101 Institute's comprehensive research, development, and test base for
liquid-propelled engines and space vehicle components, and at the time, the
liquefier represented the first in as many as five additional projects to be
undertaken by AMAC and the French company, all to be used as ground-based
support for the launch vehicles at the Hainan launch facility," stated DOJ.
Thanks to Shu, China also obtained a document in 2003 entitled, "Commercial
Information, Technical Proposal and Budgetary Officer - Design, Supply,
Engineering, Fabrication, Testing & Commissioning of 100-m3 Liquid Hydrogen
Tank and Various Special Cryogenic Pumps, Valves, Filters and Instruments"
which DOJ describes as containing "controlled military technical data".
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters that "sheer
nonsense" or "sheer fabrication" is the best way to describe any allegations of
Chinese espionage in the United States.
"It appears that Shu didn't 'steal' American technology for the Chinese, but
instead helped them acquire European technology through a business transaction
that involved bribes and skirting the arms control laws. And he was charged
with using his personal knowledge to assist the Chinese in this," said Brian
Weedon, a technical consultant with the Quebec-based Secure World Foundation.
Weedon anticipates that this story will be spun by the media in the US, "as yet
another attempt by the 'evil' Chinese to acquire technology which could be used
militarily against the US, even though these sorts of shady business
transactions occur very often and by many countries all over the world.
"It is one thing to have arms control laws in place to prevent the spread and
acquisition of strictly military technologies. But it is another to try and
prevent the spread of dual-use technology that is essential to peaceful uses of
outer space, including large-scale manned space," said Weedon. "And it appears
that this liquid fuel technology fits into that category."
Fisher views the Shu case quite differently.
"This is the latest in a long line of espionage cases that illustrate the
dangers of cooperating with China in space without there even being a program
to do so," said Fisher. "In some quarters in Washington, there is significant
but blind enthusiasm for jumping into space suits with China in the unfounded
expectation that China shares our goals and values for future of space
exploration and utilization - or can be convinced of such. China's space
programs are controlled by its military and military goals are their primary
motivator."
Fisher asserts that as long as this is the case, "all American space technology
to which China may gain access in the course of cooperation will be applied to
China's military space programs whenever possible".
Fisher wants to send a strong message to both the US government and
Chinese-Americans. He is touching on a very sensitive subject indeed, something
Fisher describes as "a conflict that goes back to the early era of America's
space program".
"This community has made enormous contributions to America's high technology
advancement which should be acknowledged gratefully," said Fisher. "But there
must be put in place a program of outreach, led by our highest elected
officials, which makes clear that love of homeland and heritage must not be
confused with aiding the power of a communist party that ultimately threatens
the freedoms which has made their success possible."
While Fisher's recommendations may seem extreme to some readers, there is
little doubt that the Chinese espionage apparatus is in high gear with respect
to acquiring rocket and satellite technology secrets, in particular from the
US. Whether he is a Chinese spy or not, Shu is the latest on a long list of
significant arrests over the past year or so.
And the pattern suggests that Chinese agents and their supporters are very
adept at getting what they want - sometimes waiting several years to accomplish
their delicate missions.
The US can just look at a string of recent cases like Shu's, Chi Mak's, Dongfan
Chung's and Gregg Bergersen's, for example, to see the challenge that confronts
it.
"Chi Mak acknowledged that he had been placed in the United States
[specifically in the high tech sector in California] more than 20 years
earlier, in order to burrow into the defense-industrial establishment to steal
secrets," Joel Brenner, the head of counterintelligence for the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence told the Washington Post in an interview last
spring. "It speaks of deep patience."
Mak was sentenced in April to more than 20 years in prison by a federal judge
A Boeing employee, Dongfan Chung, was arrested last winter and charged with
providing classified information to the Chinese about space shuttle and rocket
technology.
At almost exactly the same time, Gregg Bergersen, a Defense Security
Cooperation Agency (DSCA) analyst, was arrested for passing classified data
about US military sales to Kuo Tai-sheng, who was also arrested along with a
third person. Kuo had quickly given this information to the Chinese. Whether or
not Kuo may have been on the trail of more sensitive satellite-related
information given Bergersen's previous work on various US Navy command,
control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) projects in the early
2000s - prior to his arrival at DSCA - is unclear.
Peter J Brown is a satellite journalist from Maine, USA.
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