On October 6, 2008, the International Herald Leader, a subsidiary of Xinhua News Agency, published a respondent to the arrest and lawsuit against the Chinese-American physicist, Shu Quansheng, Ph.D., by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [1]
LOS ANGELES, BEIJING — While the Chinese around the world joyfully celebrated the launching of Shenzhou VII, the news of "The Chinese Aerospace Spy Arrested," came out from the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the United States. On the early morning of September 24, 2008, the FBI arrested the Chinese-American physicist, Shu Quansheng, Ph.D., the President and CEO of the U.S. AMAC International Inc., in Norfolk, Virginia.
The FBI filed three indictments against Shu Quansheng: Illegally provided the defense service to the foreign agents in violation of the U.S. "Weapon Export Control Law," exported defense goods, and bribed or attempted to bribe foreign government officials in violation of the U.S. "Foreign Corruption Law, respectively." If all of these charges were convicted, Shu Quansheng would face up to a 25-year of imprisonments.
The Chinese-American Scientist Was Accused of Selling Technology
The FBI indictments indicated that Shu Quansheng provided professional technology to the aerospace plans; assisted the purchase of foreign technology, and the improvement of the aerospace and the satellite abilities of China. The FBI official stated that Shu Quansheng was suspicious of providing the technology that "will be used to implement the plans for future lunar landing and the new generation rocket fuel for its space station plans of China." The indictments indicated that since 2003, Shu Quansheng has sold the technology of developing the liquefaction hydrogen rockets to China, and provided the low-temperature pump, the low-temperature valve and the refrigeration equipment related to the liquefied hydrogen technologies for the construction of astronautics launch station in Hainan Province, China, all of them violated the "Weapon Export Control Law."
After the turmoil 1989-political movement, the U.S. implemented the weapon embargo against China, and it is prohibited to sell the high-tech products to the Chinese military departments. This prohibition is still effective and has become the prosecution legal basis for the law enforcement authority to investigate the Chinese-American espionage case.
At NASA, A Person of Great Merit, Earns High Prestige in the U.S.
The 68-years-old Shu Quansheng was born in Shanghai, China. He is a well-known scholar at the areas of accelerator, superconductivity and cryogenics, and has earned high prestige in the American scientific community. On October 5, 2008, the International Herald Leader called the office of AMAC Beijing branch, but nobody answered. According to the website of the AMAC Beijing branch, Shu Quansheng was the Chairman of the U.S. Applied Superconductivity Conference in 2001, and was a member of the Commerce Committee for President Bush
During the college years, Shu Quansheng majored in Physics. In 1970, after graduated and earned his Ph.D., he started teaching at Zhe Jiang University in China, and was engaged in the cryogenic technique research. In the mid-1980s, Shu Quansheng immigrated to the U.S. and was engaged in the scientific research at Washington University. In 1998, he became an American citizen. In the same year, he founded AMAC in Newport News, Virginia, and became the CEO of the company. 10
AMAC had been granted $4.7 million for research and renovation from the U.S. Department of Energy and NASA because of its outstanding achievements in the areas of superconductivity accelerating cavity, the radio frequency power coupler, the magnetic suspension cryogenic system and the astronautics low temperature. Shu Quansheng had led and completed six projects related to low temperature and superconductivity. According to the website of the AMAC Beijing branch, he developed the first prototype of Cryogenic Transfer Line with Magnetic Suspension in the world from 2001 to 2004. This magnetic suspension technology would improve the launch quality and lengthen the flight life span of the vehicle.
The U.S. Media Implicated the FBI Abused Its Power
The analysis of the aerospace plan of China from an American scholar may explain the intention of the FBI’s publicity of this so-called, "the Chinese Aerospace Spy Case," at the launch of Shenzhou VII. Charles Vick, a senior analyst for GlobalSecurity.org research group, a think tank in the defense information and aerospace research, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C., indicated during the interview that although the military power of China in outer space falls far behind the U.S., China possibly would threaten the leadership position of the U.S. in 15 years as a result of the its fast economy development and the support in aerospace plan of its government.
In fact, the U.S. Department of Justice launched the "The National Anti-Expansion Plan," in 2007, with the main purpose of prohibiting the export of sensitive military or military-civilian technology to China, Iran and so on. However, as early as in 2005, the FBI official publicly declared China as the biggest espionage threat. By now, the U.S. government has already filed at least 20 espionage cases that involved exporting sensitive technology to China. With incessant Chinese spy cases emerging, even the U.S. media, which always pursue sensation, started to suspect the authenticity. When "Forbes" magazine reported the Shu Quansheng case, it mentioned the Li Wen He case in 1999. It pointed out that Li Wen He finally sought the justice and obtained the compensation from the government and the media. It implied that the FBI abused its power during the investigation of the so-called Chinese spy cases.
An anonymous retired Chinese aerospace engineer told the International Herald Leader that the FBI and the other U.S. law enforcement agencies are still keeping the mindsets of the cold war. Their first impressions are that most Chinese technical personnel could be the Chinese spies of which made these Chinese-Americans impossible to protect themselves. The fundamental reason of these "the Chinese Espionage Cases" is the ideology conflicts between the different political systems of the U.S. and China, particularly the U.S. authorities still regard the rising China as the potential enemy. Under the present circumstance that both countries have close ties on economics and technologies, it could be predicted that more so-called "the Chinese Espionage Cases" would emerge.
Endnote:
[1] International Herald Leader, October 6, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2008-10/06/content_10154808.htm