
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 13, 1993                   TAG: 9310130035
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

ISRAEL HELPS CHINA BUILD UP MILITARY

Israel has sold advanced military technology to China for more than a decade and is moving to expand its cooperation with Beijing, said R. James Woolsey, the director of central intelligence.

The CIA assessment was provided in written responses to questions by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. The committee made the assessment public as part of a report on recent hearings it conducted on "proliferation threats of the 1990s," a committee aide said Monday night.

While Israel and China did not establish formal diplomatic relations until 1992, there have been many news reports about the sale of Israeli military technology to China.

The CIA says China has been acquiring advanced military technology from Israel for more than a decade on programs for jet fighters, air-to-air missiles and tanks.

Despite the previous reports, the bluntness of the CIA assessment surprised congressional specialists and appears to reflect a growing concern among American intelligence experts that China is seeking to use Israel indirectly to obtain military technology that the United States and other Western nations have refused to sell to Beijing.

The intelligence agency reports that despite worries in the West about China's military buildup and its export of missile systems and other weapons to Pakistan, Iran and other nations, Israel has continued to share military technology with the Chinese.

"Building on a long history of close defense industrial relations - including work on China's next-generation fighter, air-to-air missiles, and tank programs - and the establishment of diplomatic relations in January 1992, China and Israel appear to be moving toward formalizing and broadening their military technical cooperation," Woolsey said.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was in Beijing on Monday to discuss the broadening of Israeli-Chinese ties. In addition, an increasing number of Israeli military firms have opened offices in China to sell their products.

While there is strong support in Congress for providing Israel with the money and technology to keep its armed forces strong, there has long been worry that Israel might resell some of the technology to other nations.

Ruth Yaron, spokeswoman at the Israeli Embassy, said she had not seen Woolsey's statement and could not comment.

by CNB