Word: techs
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...line can be between harmless commerce and military assistance. Representative Christopher Cox sternly warned last week that China has been inducing its U.S. business partners to provide it with military-related technology, and momentum is growing in Congress for a crackdown on this kind of seepage. But the tech industry, and some outside observers, say the risks are being overblown--and some of the tighter rules being considered would be ineffective or even counterproductive...
Then there's the question of whether rules against technology sharing are even effective. The tech industry, not surprisingly, argues they often aren't. Current law requires chipmakers to submit applications to sell powerful microprocessors to countries (such as China and the former Soviet Union states) that are subject to highly restrictive export controls. But Intel argues that it's impossible to prevent the chips it sells to friendly countries from ending up in less friendly ones. "We make microprocessors in the millions each month and ship them to thousands of distributors all over the world, who aren't prevented...
Despite the current backlash, no one is really expecting substantial changes. Indeed, the tech industry's supporters argue that a crackdown would drive China to European or Japanese suppliers, which could put more information in the hands of the Chinese military. "No country is as strict about technology transfers as the U.S.," says Hughes' Dore. "The way to keep the lid on is to keep them dealing with American businesses...
...Long March with old-style Soviet doctrines about how to fight on land. Instead the Chinese are toying with a far more flexible-force structure, one that would rely more on highly mobile, highly modernized soldiers. Overall goal: a military that could fight "a limited war under high-tech conditions"--read Desert Storm in Asia. Out would be the old-style model of "military regions" and "group armies" that were designed to support massive human waves in punishing ground attacks. In would be a joint-forces model copied, in many respects, from what currently sits in that five-sided building...
...weapons. Explains Brookings Institution China expert David Shambaugh: "They have no, repeat no, 1990s weapons in their inventory." Though China's procurement officials are easy to spot working the Paris Air Show and other military fests, they are mostly window shopping. The P.L.A. has sampled some 1970s-era high-tech toys like Soviet Su-27 jets, but most of the cool new Nintendo military gear is out of its price range or on forbidden export lists in the West. In the aftermath of the Cox report, it will probably be even harder for China to buy sophisticated weapons systems...