Chinese Am. pleads guilty--sold technology to China

[>:^|]

full story at http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/7358123.htm

U.S. scholar pleads guilty to selling technology to native China
By Shannon McCaffrey
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - A human-rights activist who became a cause celebre when she was accused of espionage and held for months in a Chinese prison pleaded guilty on Wednesday to U.S. charges that she sold technology to China usable in weapons development.

According to government prosecutors, Gao Zhan shipped 80 Military Intel 486 DX2 Microprocessors to China between 1998 and 2001 and was wired more than $1.5 million in return.

The microprocessors are legal in the United States but their export is closely controlled by the government because of their potential use in military aircraft and in helping to control missile-guidance systems.

[SunWuKong]

hah! "human-rights activist" indeed.

[VV o n g B a]

gotta love the ol' double cross.

[John0101]

Everybody has a price. I'm sure a lot of people would sell military technology to china for huge sums of money.

[ellsworth81]

those military fools must've really buffed up the supah processing power of the 486 DX2, cuz if i remember correctly, pentiums were already out by then.

[ism]

The 486DX2 was released in 1992, with a clock speed of 50 MHz. The military version was released in 1993.

The Pentium was released in 1993.

By 1998, Pentium IIs, Xeons, and Celerons were available. I don't know what the military version of the DX2 could do, but I'm pretty sure the additional processing power of the consumer-grade 1998 chips could speed up any software emulation of it.

Anyway, is my tinfoil hat on too tight or could China have staged her arrest and release to help catapult her into a position to do this?

[Blue dice]

Wait a minute..China paid 1.5 million for 486 cpus?? Can someone please explain the difference between the military grade cpus and civilian versions. Doesn't that sound kind of expensive, last time I saw 486 cpus go for like $2 apiece on ebay or something.

[recks]

486 DX2 controlling missile guidance systems? wow... thats some huge profit margin for old computers.. Maybe she was going to use the 1.5 million to fund her human rights agenda :glare: or perhaps just build a mansion j/k

[ism]

I looked it up. Functionally, the military version is no more powerful than the consumer version. It's identical in terms of capability. The only difference is the environment tolerance. The military version can withstand lower and higher temperatures, as well as withstand radiation. Perfect for use in missiles.

That's why they couldn't use more powerful, modern CPUs, unless they were similarly hardened.

[Emperor_Mike]

Originally Posted by John0101

Everybody has a price. I'm sure a lot of people would sell military technology to china for huge sums of money.

You're right in saying that everyone has a price. There is no one in this world of ours who cannot be purchased.

[>:^|]

Originally Posted by ism

Anyway, is my tinfoil hat on too tight or could China have staged her arrest and release to help catapult her into a position to do this?

I think I've also got a tinfoil hat on. ;)

[Cipherous]

Originally Posted by Emperor_Mike

You're right in saying that everyone has a price. There is no one in this world of ours who cannot be purchased.

I beg to differ. I am sure there are SOME.

[mr. x]

sigh, with her and that katrina leung u think this might just add more suspicion to the activist community?

[AngryABCGirl]

Originally Posted by mr. x

sigh, with her and that katrina leung u think this might just add more suspicion to the activist community?

To Chinese people in the US in general.