China hits back over US security allegations

The Chinese government has slammed a US Congress report which accuses it of systematically buying up advanced military technology from US businesses.

Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhu Banhzao, said the allegations were groundless, and hearkened back to the Cold War. "China hopes the US government will maintain the sound and steady development of the Sino-US relations with actual deeds," he added.

The Congressional report is the result of six month Select Committee investigation. Published on 30 December, it claimed: "Sensitive US military technology has been the subject of serious [Chinese] acquisition efforts over the last two decades, and continues today." Committee chairman, Christopher Cox, asserted the issue was "of enormous significance to national security".

But Banhzao described the alleged "serious acquisition efforts" as normal economic and technological exchanges and cooperation.

The Congress committee has made 38 recommendations to tighten loopholes in US law to prevent this happening again. They aim to "recognise the need for continued American leadership in technology," according to an official statement.

The investigation stemmed from fears that US satellite companies, Hughes Electronics and Local, revealed national secrets when they gave technical support to Chinese rockets that had crashed with their satellites on board. But the Committee found that disruption to US national security went way beyond those two incidents. "China's targeting of sensitive US military technology is not limited to missiles and satellites, but covers other military technologies," said Cox.

Details of the 1,000-page report will not be available until the Committee has established how much of the material is classified.