Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency release is a Scientific Intelligence Study, TCS No. 4425/65. The Scientific Intelligence Committee prepared it with other intelligence community committees and approved it on 3 June 1965. It assesses Communist China's capabilities in science and technology through 1970, with particular attention to military and industrial programs. The study concludes that China will lag far behind advanced nations. The exceptions are a few priority areas such as nuclear weapons, missiles and air defense. It contains no discussion of UFOs.
“The Advance”26 pages
Approved for Release: 2018/01/30 C00659420 ' battery. Investigation of newer battery systems, such as the nickel-cadium system is also carried out. There is evidence of some fuel-cell research, but this will not have military significance for many years. 103. Basic research on organic chemistry in China is far behind that in the West, with only a few significant contributions having been made. The Chinese are conducting a small amount of high- quality basic research on the chemistry of high polymers and have a major development program in this field. The application of results produced in the research institutes has been inhibited, how- ever, by a shortage of engineering know-how and inept management. 104. In the field of pharmaceutical chemistry, there has been some success in producing drugs for export. While some of the work was merely copying known methods, some very good original research has been done. For example, the Chi- nese successfully developed diosgenin and in 1962 began to sell it abroad. (Diosgenin is an ex- tremely important substance used in the prepara- tion of cortisone, hydrocortisone, and progesterone.) Now they are able to export finished cortisone in various forms as well as other steriod hormones. 105. Tn support of their agricultural program, the Chinese have conducted a sizable amount of re- search in insecticides, includin s thesis of or- ganophosphorous compoundsl 106. Research has been carried out to exploit waste materials. Agricultural wastes have yielded furfural, and research is being carried out to_ pro- duce a series of organic chemicals analogous to those derived from coal-tar. There is no evidence, however, that commercial-scale processes have been developed. Attention has also been paid to by- Fproducts from petroleum and shale firocessing, 107. Basic research in chemical engineering is rather limited in China and is concentrated at educational institutions, * rcs 4425/as lb -8 @ 109. Resources in chemical engineering research and development have been devoted primarily to agricultural and military needs. Great emphasis is being given‘ to the development of processes and equipment for synthetic ammonia, urea and other fertilizers, as well as other chemicals for use in @ _-. , agriculture. l 4. Metallurgy 110. Specialty alloy steels are receiving the high- est priority in Chinese metallurgical research. Be- cause of the scarceness of nickel in China, a large effort has been devoted to substitute steel composi- tions that require a minimum of this element for alloving purposes. l , ,5, 111. The high-priority materials requirements of agricultural, industrial, and military programs are reflected in Chinese metallurgical research activity on corrosion- and heat-resistant steels used for the construction of chemical process equipment and on processes for extracting certain of the less common metals. It is questionable whether China now has the capability to produce and fabricate high-tem- perature alloys required for aircraft jet engines; however, a very limited capability may be de- veloping. 112. The Chinese are producing a modest variety of alloy steels, including some stainless steels, ordinary grades of precision steels, high-speed tool Approved for Release: 2018/01/30 C00659420 S9 83
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 95 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.