Documents / FOIA release

(EST Pub Date) Science and Technology in Communist CHINA Through 1970

Central Intelligence Agency · 1965-06-01 · 95 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

Open the PDF at page 58 Original source ↗

“The Advance”26 pages

  • p. 5 …Hence, the Scientific Intelligence Committee has undertaken this study to provide the intelligence com- munity with…
  • p. 10 …China will continue to lag far behind the more advanced nations of the world in the…
  • p. 12 …from the present through 1970, China will remain far behind the world’s more advanced nations…
  • p. 13 …Much good work in analytical chemistry is conducted by the Chinese, particularly on the methods of…
  • p. 14 …The most im- portant advancement in agricultural research has been in crop breeding. New native strains…
  • p. 17 …with advances in products, equipment, and production techniques. In more complex fields—for example, the priority…
  • p. 18 …In a few fields, especially those related to the advanced weapons program, a high priority in…
  • p. 19 …China is now taking steps to establish rela- tions with advanced countries of the non-Commu…
  • p. 20 …levels in the common disciplines of science and to concentrate on advancement in the follow- ing…
  • p. 24 …Research and de- velopment have continued to expand since 1960, especially in the expensive advanced weapons…
  • p. 28 …the last 10 years. Other new leaders will come from more formal programs for advanced training…
  • p. 29 …Sophisti- cated apparatus of the kind expected to be used in the research laboratories of advanced…
  • p. 32 …techniques and methods, and deficiencies in the amounts of advanced mate- rials, equipment, and facilities. Nevertheless…
  • p. 33 …The most advanced high-speed digital com- puter in China, the 16-K, is somewhat inferior…
  • p. 41 …capabilities lower than in advanced countries. Minimum operational requirements of the armed forces, industry, and agriculture…
  • p. 42 …By 1970, China will be only slightly nearer the level of advanced countries in meteorology. 148…
  • p. 45 …the situation during the period of this estimate, but by 1973-75 they should advance the…
  • p. 46 …Considerable advances have been made by the Chinese in the field of antibiotic research, but they…
  • p. 53 …This research, how- ever, has not yet reached the advanced scientific stage of that in many…
  • p. 62 _.-¢a_.- resistant materials imposed by advanced military and civilian requirements, the Chinese increased substantially the electric…
  • p. 66 …oriented toward the development of advanced weaponry and toward the production of advanced weapons on a…
  • p. 67 …The Chinese now are de- pendent on foreign sources for some advanced equipment and for designs…
  • p. 68 …However, advanced tech- nology is not needed to get most of the jobs done. The Chinese…
  • p. 78 …of the Shanghai-class, which do not represent any radical advances in design. The Shanghai-class…
  • p. 86 …These equipments, how- ever, probably will not be as sophisticated as those of the more advanced…
  • p. 87 …coMMUmcA'r1oNs—China places heavy reli- ance on imports from the more advanced countries for its…
G‘ X
‘T
r
>~
I
‘L
2
.
. 1
2
1
-..._.._._»...
J
179. The only known U-235 production facility
in China is the complex located on the Yellow
River near Lan-chou. This facility probably in-
cludes a gaseous diffusion plant supplied by the
USSR during the 1957 to mid-1960 period. This
site layout suggests that original plans included
an additional building that would have permitted
production by normal gaseous diffusion '
tech-
niques of highly enriched uranium. However, a
second large building has not been constructed.
The “evidence suggests that the first building could
have started operation sometime between August
1962 and March 1963. The Chinese apparently
were _forced to adopt other methods to achieve
highly enriched U-235. Thus, it seems improbable
that a completely gaseous diffusion process was
used by the Chinese, since they are likely to have
used the first nuclear materials available for their
first device.
180. We believe that the likeliest source of the
Chinese enriched uranium was a combination of
processes, where partially enriched uranium pro-
duced by the Lan-chou gaseous diffusion plant was
further enriched by an unidentified electromagnetic
separation facility.
181. A small electromagnetic facility could be
184. Pao-t’0u Plutonium Production Facilities—
A highly secure installation, located about 4 nau-
tical miles to the northwest of the old city of
Pao-t’ou, was identified in March 1963 as probably
being a plutonium production facility. On the
basis of all available evidence, however, we are
not able to establish a firm estimate of the opera-
tional status of the reactor.
(b)(3)
A
37 M3)
Approved for Release: 2018/01/30 C00659420
TCS 4425/65(b)(3
b)(1
(b)(1
located within the Lan-chou complex.
((bl)((1
)
Approved for Release: 2018/01/30 C00659420
b 1

Not linked to a story yet.

About this file

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.