It is not only in India that one branch of the government is unaware of what other branches are doing. It happens in the other great democracy — the United States. Most political analysts are aware that China and the US have a few problems between them. But the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which oversees the export of US high technology to other countries, says it has merely been doing its job in denying high technology to India (not China) all these years. On the one hand the US is building a National Missile Defence (NMD) to protect itself from nuclear-tipped missiles, ostensibly from North Korea. This anti-missile shield will eventually cost US taxpayers anything between $ 50 billion and $ 100 billion. And that apparently is what it costs to protect the US from Kim Jong Il’s one and a half nuclear weapons and five cottage industry rockets. So most analysts have concluded the missile shield is actually being built against China’s modernised nuclear arsenal. After all, the Chinese Second Artillery Corps — which mans China’s strategic weapons — is about to dump its antiquated Long March rockets and be reissued with the 6,000 nautical mile range DF-31 missiles. This is the strategic overarch under which the immediate national objectives of China will run — that of taking over Taiwan. Beijing is determined to teach Taipei a lesson, but is not clear how. It is inducting 50 new missiles opposite the Taiwan straits every year. But Taipei is too shrewd not to see that what China wishes is to incorporate Taiwan, not destroy it. An outright invasion across the 150 km Taiwan straits will pit China’s creaky navy against the formidable Seventh Fleet. The Americans have somehow to be kept out of this. Hence the DF-31s and Beijing’s famous observation, ‘‘Surely Washington loves Los Angeles more than they love the Taiwanese.’’ Now all this is old strategic stuff. And just in case Beijing wants to find out how much Los Angeles is loved in Washington — which may not be much — the Americans have inducted the NMD to protect their Californian showpiece. This is where the calculation begins to get dangerous. The NMD can’t really protect continental US from a Chinese first strike. But if the Americans were to launch a first strike, the residual Chinese arsenal would be easily destroyed by the NMD’s phase one capability. So it’s all really about a resurgent China trying to eventually supplant the US as the world’s sole hegemon. Everyone knows that, except for a few branches of the US government. They haven’t been told — and have assiduously tried to cripple India instead. As the infamous US Federal Register of June 20, 2003, states, ‘‘In 1998, pursuant to a presidential determination under section 102 (b) of the AECA, two Federal Register notices were published that revoked all licences and approvals to transfer defence articles and defence services to India and Pakistan.’’ But this policy was gradually altered, until the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act, 2003, amended the congressional notification requirements as per the Department of Defence Appropriations Act, 2000. Today Congress is to be informed only if exports from the US to India exceed $ 14 million for defence equipment and $ 50 million for defence services. Finally on November 21, 2002, the last two sanctions on the Pakistani ministry of defence and A.Q. Khan’s Suparco — for having breached the MTCR with Chinese entities — were lifted. But what this bureaucratic gobbedygook masks are some truly startling details. While the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs of the Department of State, and the BIS in particular, were targeting India, some incredible scams took place with regard to China. The first was the acknowledged tilt by the Clinton administration in downgrading the intelligence reports about a largescale Chinese build-up opposite Taiwan. As a result, US-China commercial links could go on unhindered. The second was the alleged transfer to China of advance technology satellite-lunching secrets by Loral and Hughes. This enabled China to bid successfully for the lucrative US satellite-launching business. The third, which grievously hurt India, was when the Clinton administration accused the Chinese of transferring M-11 missiles that were below the MTCR limits to Pakistan. This when it knew fully well what China had transferred was the entire M-9 missile manufacturing facility. With this Pakistan manufactured and launched the Shaheen recently. The fourth, of course, was the Cox report. It accused China of filching secrets of the W-88 nuclear warhead and all the missile-guidance technology from the US. But the BIS doesn’t know all this apparently. For this is what it has to say about India and China, ‘‘Our goal is to try to have India undertake some of the internal reforms that are not that different from perhaps what China did years ago that really helped to create a robust high technology relationship with the Chinese.’’ So there you have it. If we do all that the Chinese did, high technology will begin to flow. The man who made this statement, Kenneth Juster, is now in India, negotiating with the Ministry of External Affairs on revising technology transfer procedures. According to the BIS, there is no problem really. In 2003, the BIS returned 279 applications from US exporters stating no licences were required. Only 10 per cent of the applications were rejected. The Indians say something entirely different. First no US exporter knows what the law is, but believes that his government won’t permit any exports. Second no Indian hi-tech importer applies because he will give his entire game away and be targeted forever afterwards. Third, no US exporter actually bids for any Indian tender, government or non-government, defence or commercial, because he doesn’t want any hassles with his government. Fourth, US companies who had applications rejected have been terrified by the chilling manner in which the rejections were worded. And the word spread fast. In the US the technology is with the MNCs. The government can only sell finished products like aircraft, ships and submarines. Will somebody senior enough in the US government please tell the BIS who the bad guys are — and for added measure point them out on the map?
