China and the United States have developed scientific and technological exchanges, and economic and trade cooperation, on the basis of equality and mutual benefits. This conforms to the interests of the people in both countries and the trend of historical development as well. In the current world, it is normal for countries to conduct such exchanges and cooperation. Yet, even these activities have been subject to deliberate distortion in the Cox Report.

On January 31, 1979, China and the United States signed an inter-governmental agreement on scientific and technological cooperation. The efforts made by the two countries over the past two decades have enabled this cooperation to reach a considerable scale. Up to now, cooperative protocols signed by related departments of the two countries have covered 33 fields, including education, agriculture, space, atmosphere, ocean fishing, medicine and health, earthquake prediction, environmental protection, water resources, energy efficiency and renewable energy.

In the agricultural sector, the two sides have exchanged a great deal of seed resources. The Chinese side has provided the US side with more than 2,000 crop species, including many precious wild species. In the health sector, important medical statistics and data have been exchanged. The Chinese side has provided the US side with the investigation results of cancer distribution among 240 million Chinese people across the country, and the Cancer Distribution Map in China, compiled on the basis of cancer occurrence rate, death rate and regional distribution, which are proved of great significance for the United States to make comparative studies and find ways to prevent and control the disease. The network of seismic stations jointly established by the two countries enables the United States to obtain 150,000 pieces of microfiche recording and other data from China, which are of great value to studies on the causes and formation of earthquakes and to the improvement of forecasting techniques. Lies in the Cox Report have not only hurt the feeling of scientists of the two countries, but also affected normal bilateral scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation.

What is most malicious about the Cox Report is that it links China's policies and guidelines for developing science and technology, the research institutes and their staff engaging in bilateral scientific and technological exchanges, the business agencies and their staff engaging in economic and trade exchanges, the official and non-official Chinese representative offices and their staff in the United States, American Chinese and Chinese students in America with the so-called espionage activities. This is typical racial discrimination, and a deadly insult to the Chinese nation. It marks the reappearance of McCarthyism, active in the United States during the 1950s, and reflects the aberrant personality of some American politicians hostile to China's development and becoming powerful.

The "863 Program'' is an open and normal medium-to-long-term scientific research and development plan launched by the Chinese Government in 1986. It is a strategic policy-decision made by the nation to use its own intellectual, financial and material resources to independently develop science and technology in order to narrow the gap with foreign advanced scientific and technical level and accelerate its own national economic development. But, in the Cox Report, this program is groundlessly associated with the "theft" of American technology, sensitive military technology in particular. Never did China in the past, nor does it at present or will it in the future, develop its science and technology on the basis of so-called "theft".

Compared with the high-tech development programs of other countries, China's "863 Program'' has the following characteristics: First, as a high-tech plan of a developing country, it sets quite limited areas and goals which center on economic development and improvement of the people's living standards. Second, under the circumstances of a comparatively weak high-tech foundation, the plan aims at learning useful international experience and advanced technology through normal channels conforming to common international practices. The "863 Program'' mainly involves the science and technology related to the development of the national economy and overall national strength. For instance, the 13 key technological development projects and the eight major achievements transfer projects outlined in the "863 Program'' during the Eighth Five-Year Plan period (1991-95) were: (1) Key technologies: two-line hybrid rice, insect pest-resistant transgenic cotton and other transgenic plants, gene therapy for malignant tumors and other diseases, large scale parallel computing, optical fiber amplifier and pump, infra-red adaptive optics observation system for 2.16-meter telescope, 2.48 GB/S SDH high speed optical fiber transmission system, airborne real-time remote sensing imaging transmitting and processing system, STEP-based CAD/CAPP/CAM system, 6,000-meter autonomous underwater vehicle, high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, double-layer glow plasma surface alloying technology, and research of the diamond film; and (2) Major achievements transfer projects: genetic engineering polypeptide drugs, two-line hybrid rice demonstration, new era computers, high-powered laser and its applications, enterprises' CIMS application demonstration, robotic automation demonstration engineering, high-performance low-sintering temperature multi-layer ceramics capacitor, nickel-metal hydride batteries and related materials.

The Cox Report intentionally distorts the research projects included in the "863 Program''. For instance, the gene research plan which was clearly designed for the development of new medicines is said "could have biological warfare application". The plan for developing a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor by Tsinghua University is a basic research project for the development of the civilian use of nuclear energy, but it is said to "aid in the development of nuclear weapons". This cannot but show people how skilled Cox and others are at fabricating lies.

The Cox Report also says that China's "appetite for information and technology appears to be insatiable, and the energy devoted to the task enormous". This is a malicious calumny. Not only does it have no evidence to support this conclusion throughout the nearly 900 pages, but, on the contrary, it shows that the fabricators of the Cox Report are insatiably avaricious for and have devoted great energy to getting hold of China's military technology and information. Anyone reading the Cox Report will gain such an understanding that none of the so-called materials substantially listed in the report from beginning to end provides absolute proof and specific facts adequately enough to verify its conclusions. Instead, the report gives a systematic description of China's nuclear weapons, various guided missiles, satellites, and military aircraft and vessels, showing the performance indices and structural sketch maps of some of them, and even giving the details of research and development process in some cases. The specific models of "Chinese military equipment" mentioned in the Cox Report include: enhanced radiation weapon (neutron bomb); eight kinds of ballistic missiles ranging from CSS-2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 to CSS-52; DF-31 intercontinental missiles; JL-1 and JL-2 submarine-launched ballistic missiles; C801 and C802 anti-ship cruise missiles; YH-4 cruise missile; K-8 military aircraft; F-10 fighter; H-11 military helicopter; airborne warning aircraft; FSW, FSW-1 and FSW-2 photo-reconnaissance satellites; 094 submarine; and Xia (summer) class ballistic missile nuclear-powered submarine. The report also makes irresponsible comments on China's future development programs concerning guided missiles, nuclear weapons and manned space flight. Here, we do not want to say anything about the so-called "military equipment" and development program listed in the Cox Report. But this is quite sufficient to show that Cox and others are hankering after the military secrets of another country. It is a case of a thief crying "stop thief".