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Japan police chief urges caution over high-tech exports to China
By HIROKO TABUCHI
Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
Japan's national police chief on Thursday urged the country's high-tech manufacturers to be more cautious in exporting their goods to China, saying the technology could be diverted to military uses.
The warning from National Police Agency chief Iwao Uruma came after a series of crackdowns on companies for allegedly exporting instruments with military applications to China without proper government authorization.
"Companies should take national interest into account" when shipping machinery to China and follow Japan's export regulations, which bans the export of high-tech instruments without permission, Uruma said in a news conference Thursday.
"China has been putting great efforts into making its military more high-tech," Uruma warned.
Last month, police raided precision instrument maker Mitutoyo Corp. for allegedly exporting measuring machines to China and Thailand in 2001 without the required government permission.
The equipment could be used to enrich uranium, a key step in making a nuclear bomb, police said. News reports said the machinery may have been diverted separately to Libya for use in that country's now-abandoned nuclear program, and could also have reached North Korea.
Motorcycle maker Yamaha Motor Co. was also raided earlier this year on suspicion it illegally exported to China remote-control helicopters that can be diverted to military use.
As recently as December of last year, Yamaha allegedly sold an unspecified number of the helicopters for spraying pesticides. But officials fear the remote-controlled aircraft could also be used to spread chemical weapons or be used for spying, according to news reports.
The warning comes at a time when relations between the two countries have deteriorated to their worst point in decades.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso called China's military "a considerable threat" to the region in December, an assertion Beijing angrily protested.
China has also suspended summits between the two countries after Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to a controversial war shrine in October last year. Critics say the shrine glorifies Japanese militarism.
Japan, meanwhile, has expressed anger over China's move to extract gas beneath waters that lie between the two energy-hungry countries and are claimed by both.
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