PTI [ FRIDAY, JULY 12, 2002 9:52:23 PM ]
WASHINGTON: China going high-tech due to large American investments could pose a national security threat to the US and lead to a huge trade deficit with Beijing, a Congressionally appointed Commission has said.
The Commission expressed 'alarm' over the "growing US dependence on Chinese high-technology imports" and said China's "capture" of American high-tech manufacuring capacity could "undermine the US defence industrial base."
In a major recommendation, the bipartisan commission urged the Congress and the Bush Administration to devise ways to keep close tabs on all Washington's investments in Beijing, in part to prevent China's acquisition of technologies that would aid its government or the military.
The report set for release on Monday, but leaked on Friday by the Wall Street Journal, said it was concerned over the rising strength of the Chinese economy and its impact on US manufacturing jobs.
Referring to the US trade deficit with China which topped $85 billion dollars in 2000, the report recommended renewal by Congress of several trade-enforcement measures that lapsed during former President Bill Clinton's Administration on grounds that China's membership of the World Trade Organization rendered them unnecessary.
It called for establishing a "Federally mandated corporate reporting system" whereby US companies would have to report every investment and all research-and-development shipments to China, along with an assessment of how such transfers will affect US jobs and manufacturing abilities.