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Physicist not involved in Chinese launch: Quan-Sheng Shu, through his Newport News-based firm, provided info for new space facility, an affidavit...
(Daily Press (Newport News, VA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sep. 29--Headlines last week pronounced the successful Chinese launch of a manned spacecraft from the country's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
But Quan-Sheng Shu, the Newport News physicist accused of illegally sharing space-launch technology with China, was not working on anything related to that mission, according to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal charges.
Instead, the affidavit claims, Shu was using his expertise in cryogenics -- high-powered liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen that are used to launch heavy payloads into space -- to help the Chinese develop technology that would be used at a new facility on the island of Hainan, located in the South China Sea.
The Hainan launch site remains under development, and the Chinese government plans to launch satellites and space stations from the site using liquid-propelled rockets, according to several news reports.
The case against Shu, 68, a naturalized U.S. citizen who moved to Newport News in 1998, revolves around his apparent highly technical work with the Chinese, often in conjunction with a French aerospace firm.
Through his Newport News company, AMAC International, Shu previously worked for the Department of Energy and NASA to develop cryogenic technologies. AMAC also has an office in Beijing.
The affidavit points to one important grant that paid AMAC to develop "cryogenic transfer and storage technology for liquid propellants" for NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
According to the affidavit, Shu began studying cryogenics in his native China at the Institute of Low Temperature in Hangzhou. He came to the U.S. during the early 1980s and studied at the University of Washington and the Department of Energy's Fermilab.
Beginning in 2003, according to the affidavit, Shu began providing technical assistance and guidance in acquiring new technologies to Chinese officials who were involved in the design and development of the Hainan launch facility.
"Shu has been involved in the (People's Republic of China's) systematic effort to upgrade their space exploration and satellite technology capabilities by providing technical expertise and foreign technology acquisition" in the fields of cryogenics and liquid hydrogen launch technology, the affidavit said.
Shu is quoted in the affidavit as saying in a 2006 phone conversation with a Beijing-based AMAC employee that the work he was doing related to the "Lunar Mission Launch Facility on Hainan Island" and that he had "followed it for three years."
He is quoted later telling a different Beijing-based AMAC employee that the some of the Chinese officials' intent for the technology would "involve the military aspect."
In 2007, the affidavit said, Shu told a Beijing AMAC employee to "falsify end-user information" to circumvent U.S. laws: "Let me tell you, that's how the military industry buys things. Right, we've done military industry business."
Shu faces charges of bribing foreign officials, providing technical documents to the Chinese military and not having a license to sell defense-related material or proposals to China.
He's scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Norfolk today for a bond hearing.
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Copyright (c) 2008, Daily Press, Newport News, Va.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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