Obama wants to sell satellite tech to Chicom related company

Bill Gertz:
The Obama administration recently notified Congress it will grant a high-technology arms export license to a Hong Kong satellite company with Chinese ties, a move congressional Republicans say violates U.S. sanctions on Beijing.
The State Department notified the House and Senate on March 20 that it planned to issue a license under the Arms Export Control Act to Space Systems/Loral to sell restricted satellite technology to Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company, Ltd., (known as AsiaSat); Hong Kong businessman Barry Turner; and Thaicom Public Company, Ltd., in Thailand.
The dispute comes after the U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke said in a recent speech that the Obama administration has told China it is preparing for a major loosening of U.S. export controls “that will enable more high-tech goods to be exported to China.”
Regarding the satellite export, a congressional aide close to the case said the AsiaSat deal involves the transfer of defense articles, including technical data and defense services, as part of a design review and building up the AsiaSat 6 commercial communications satellite program.
“Since the enactment of sanctions on China and the transfer of communications satellites to munitions controls in 1998, any licenses for such items are denied to China,” the aide said, noting that the State Department is claiming that the U.S.-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 permits arms export licenses to Hong Kong.
Committees in both the House and Senate are investigating the proposed satellite export license and whether it would violate U.S. sanctions on China.
The license consideration grew out of a December 2011 deal between AsiaSat and Thiacom, a Thailand-based satellite and telecommunications firm. The deal allows AsiaSat to expand its business by using an orbital slot controlled by Thaicom under international rules.
The problem, according to aides, is that AsiaSat is owned in part by both General Electric Co. and the state-owned China International Trust and Investment Corporation or CITIC.
Investigators have determined that stakes of GE and CITIC in AsiaSat are indirect and managed through another firm called Bowenvale Ltd.
If CITIC’s ownership in AsiaSat is confirmed, officials say the pending Loral license would violate U.S. sanctions on China imposed after the 1989 Chinese military crackdown on unarmed protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
One official said, “It appears AsiaSat is owned by CITIC.”
... 
This has the potential of transferring defense technology to the Chicoms as currently structured.  It is the same mistake the Clinton administration made when it approved technology transfers by Loral, a key Democrat contributor.

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