US watchdog warns of high-tech trade with China

An American watchdog group called for the suspension of a new US trade program on the grounds that it would make it easier for Chinese firms to put high-tech products to military use, Reuters reported. The Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control said two of the five Chinese companies selected in October to receive high-tech goods under the Validated End-User (VEU) program have close times "to China’s military industrial complex or to companies that have been punished by the US government for proliferation or other improper export behavior." The VEU program, which allows approved Chinese companies to import certain products for civilian uses without obtaining individual export licenses, was created to address US firms’ concerns about being shut out of China’s fast growing economy. A Bush administration spokesmen said all five Chinese companies had been approved after a rigorous security investigation.