Significant Errors in Testimony on China's Space Program
In October of 2000 the Congress created the U.S. – China Economic Security and Review Commission (USCC) to "monitor, investigate, and submit to Congress an annual report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China, and to provide recommendations, where appropriate, to Congress for legislative and administrative action."
On May 20, 2008 the USCC held a hearing entitled "China's Proliferation Practices and the Development of its Cyber and Space Warfare Capabilities". In reading the testimony, UCS discovered three significant factual errors in the written testimony of one of the panelists.
In light of the importance of the Commission's role in informing Congress on the question of China's space program, UCS China Project Manager Gregory Kulacki and Prof. Joan Johnson-Freese, a leading expert on the Chinese space program and the Chair of the National Security Decision-Making Department at the U.S. Naval War College, sent a memo to the USCC detailing the errors.
Over the past several years UCS has worked to improve the quality of the information in the U.S. debate on the Chinese space program. Because the written USCC testimony containing the errors is posted on the USCC website, we are making the memo correcting the errors available here.
