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SCMP Reporter

Researchers may be barred from getting supercomputers and other technology as part of a tightening of United States export controls.

 Complaints about the alleged unauthorised diversion of a US high-speed computer to a Chinese military research unit have prompted the Commerce Department to re-evaluate its export licence conditions.

 US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright voiced concerns to Foreign Minister Qian Qichen in Hong Kong this week.

 She said the US Government export licence had been violated by installing the Sun Microsystems computer at a defence research institute in Changsha.

 The incident has heightened criticism of Washington's recent decision to loosen controls on supercomputer sales to China - and highlighted Hong Kong's shadowy role as middleman.

 The computer was originally sold by Sun to an unnamed Hong Kong company, which then sold it to the supposed end-user, a Beijing scientific institute.

 Hong Kong firms are being subject to much less stringent US export controls than their mainland counterparts, but are still barred from re-selling dual-use technology to China for military use.

 State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said yesterday: 'We are concerned that there have been recent diversions of supercomputers from civilian to military use in China.

 'We are looking into all of those. We're talking to the American companies involved, and we're talking to the Chinese Government. This is a very important issue. And we expect the Chinese Government will look into this as closely as we are.'  William Reinsch, Commerce Department Undersecretary, said closer controls would be placed on academies and institutes - especially in China and Russia - which could be involved in sensitive military development.

 The department this week added 13 institutes - three of which are Chinese - to its list of end-users which will only receive sensitive technology under tight monitoring.

 The list also includes allies, including a university in Israel.

 Mr Reinsch said: 'So far the focus has been on entities that engage in nuclear research, but there are other things that need to be controlled - chemicals and missiles.' Beijing yesterday denied diverting US supercomputers for military use.

 China 'has not violated the rules in export agreements' over the sale of a Sun Microsystems supercomputer, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Tang Guoqiang.

 The computer could be used only for 'weather predictions, warnings for earthquakes and natural disasters and other scientific fields', Mr Tang said. He insisted it had been bought through 'regular channels'.

 US officials have said the supercomputer had been installed at a defence laboratory in the central province of Hunan, according to US press reports. It was meant to be at a scientific research centre in Beijing.

 China has bought 46 supercomputers since the US opened up hi-tech exports in 1995.



Research threat as US cracks down on technology exports