THE scientist at the centre of a probe into whether American firms improperly helped China improve its rockets told the Chinese he would do all he could to make their rockets the most reliable in the industry, the New York Times said yesterday.
Scientist Wah Lim, a senior vice-president and engineer at a unit of Loral Space and Communications, made the statement in a letter to Liu Jiyuan, chairman of China Aerospace Corp in April 1996.
The letter was sent two weeks before a Loral technical review of a Chinese rocket launch failure that destroyed a Loral satellite was given to the mainland company without US government approval and against Loral policy, the newspaper said.
Federal officials are probing whether the review, an analysis, breached US export control laws and damaged national security by giving the Chinese information that would enable them to improve their missile programme.
'We at Space Systems/Loral would like China Great Wall to be a strong supplier of launch services and we will do everything in our power to help you,' Mr Lim wrote.
George Newhouse, Mr Lim's lawyer - now an executive at Hughes Space and Communications in southern California - said his client was innocent of any wrongdoing.