U.S. Defense Department documents describe a massive laser weapons build-up in China, reports Charles Smith in Worldnet Daily. People's Liberation Army [PLA] laser weapons include anti-satellite weapons, anti-cruise missiles and lasers designed to instantly blind soldiers on the battlefield or aircraft pilots. China has already deployed the ZM-87 blinding laser, called a "dazzler" system, which resembles a machine-gun on a tripod mount. Although banned in many international treaties, China is offering the "dazzler" for export on the world market. The U.S. military has deployed no effective counter-measures for the "dazzler," such as protective glasses for soldiers. American pilots rely on night-vision equipment that cannot block the intense light beam.

Worldnet Daily adds, recent translations of PLA documents show accelerated development of beam weapons. PLA doctrine states laser weapons will be used for "active jamming of electro-optics, blinding combatants and damaging sensors, causing laser-guided bombs or cruise-missiles to deviate from their targets." Li Hui, is the director of the Beijing Institute of Remote Sensing Equipment, a PLA front company for missile guidance design that runs China's laser technology. Li stated "laser technology is the only effective means to counter cruise missiles."

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency [DIA] suspects Israel shared with China restricted U.S. laser weapons technology during a successful joint project to build the Tactical High-Energy Laser [THEL] battlefield anti-rocket laser gun, the Washington Times reports. The $131 million joint laser weapon program, was launched in 1996 in an effort to rapidly build a weapon capable of destroying Katyusha rockets, mortars and artillery. The THEL lasers, also known as the Nautilus system, is scheduled to be deployed in Israel later this year. Suspicions about China acquiring the know-how in Israel are based on reports from U.S. contractors who saw Chinese technicians working secretly with one of the Israeli companies involved in the laser weapons program, and also from a Chinese government scientist who knew details on the super-secret THEL system and asked for more details on it during an international symposium. In addition, the DIA reports Beijing is working on a high-energy deuterium laser with weapons application acquired from Russia.

Chinese military leaders, seeking increased communications bandwidth to modernize their command and control capabilities, are seeking to purchase access to the U.S.-based Teledesic satellite constellation, Defense News reports. The head of Teledesic Holdings, Ltd., Seattle, retired Admiral Williams Owen, a former vice-chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, "The Chinese are all over us at Teledesic...We will sell it to them because we are a pure commercial company." [Editor's note: According to experts, the Teledesic satellite network enables high-speed telecommunication and Internet access, essential to global military operations. The network, embellished with a secure fiber-optics system, can permit the General Staff to direct and divert intercontinental ballistic or cruise missiles from a remote central command post.]

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