Observers welcome Bush's move on dual-use material
Monday's decision by the Bush administration to authorise the export to China of more than 900 tonnes of bulk graphite, used for making plastics, comes as the US reviews policies governing the export of goods and technologies to the mainland which have been controlled for reasons of national security and foreign policy.
Approval of the sale of dual-purpose graphite, which can also be used to produce technology for the space launch industry, had to go through a lengthy and complicated process, and analysts said the decision might have been made by US President George W. Bush himself.
'Whoever wanted to sell the graphite must have worked through a lengthy export control process in a manner perhaps similar to [former] president [Bill] Clinton's approval of the launching of certain US-built satellites on Chinese rockets in the latter half of the 1990s,' said Robert Kapp, president of a China business consulting company.
In an official letter to the Speaker of the House, Mr Bush certified that the export approval was 'not detrimental to the United States' space launch industry, and that the material and equipment, including any indirect technical benefit that could be derived from such exports, will not measurably improve the missile or space launch capabilities of the People's Republic of China'.
The letter listed the names of specific Chinese companies that would use the graphite for non-military purposes.
The US Commerce Department published proposed rules governing export regulations for China in the US Federal Register last month for public comment.