Berry and his senior team agreed but did almost nothing to alert Wah Lim, according to the report. On May 7, 1996, without informing State, Lim assistant Nick Yen faxed the panel's draft conclusions to scientists in Beijing. Soon after, the rockets' reliability improved dramatically. State and Defense Department officials found out about the Loral fax, went ballistic and called in the Justice Department. Loral executives insist the fax was a clerical error, but federal and congressional investigators want answers: Did Loral VIPs deliberately choose not to know too much so China could get what it wanted?
Secrets Leaked to China: Dumb or Deliberate?
Steve Bryen is the Yoda of the arms trade. Formerly the Defense
Department's export czar, he knows every sinkhole in the
regulatory swamp. Ignore him at your peril -- as executives of Space
Systems/Loral found out. A 700-page report to be issued this week
by a select House committee chaired by Republican representative Christopher Cox of California tells how, on April 11, 1996, Bryen
warned Loral president Robert Berry not to give China any
technical help without first getting State Department permission.
Berry had just announced the assignment of top company engineer
Wah Lim to head a panel of Western scientists who would advise
China on possible causes of three rocket failures, the most
recent of which had destroyed a Loral satellite. Fixing glitches
in China's rocket-guidance system was in Loral's interest, but,
Bryen cautioned, it could also improve the reach and accuracy of
the country's ballistic missiles, in violation of U.S. laws.