SINO-SOVIET SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION AGREEMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700060254-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 30, 2011
• Sequence Number: 254
• Publication Date: May 7, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCECAGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS
COUNTRY China; USSR
SUBJECT, Political; Scientific
- Physics, atomic energy
HOW research
PUBLISHED Weekly periodical
WHERE
PUBLISHED T'ai-pei
DATE
PUBLISHED 26 Feb 1952
LANGUAGE
REPORT
CD O.
DATE OF
DATE DIST. ? May 1952
NO. OF PAGES 4
SUPPLEMENT TO
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Hsin-wen Tien-ti (Newsdom), Vol VIII, No 8, 1952.
SINO-SOVIET SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION AGREEMENT
The writer of this article, Feng Yuan-hsi (1) fno biographic in-
formation available7 states that the Chinese Comemists and the
Soviet Union secretly signed a Sino-Soviet Scientific Cooperation
Agreement in July 1951. The agreement calls for joint research en
atomic energy at the newly established Atomic Energy Research Office,
the exchange of researchei'a beLween the two countries, the transfer
of all available scientific data in China to the Soviet Uniol., the
search for, and mining of, uranium ores, and in traction irk the
Soviet tactics of stealing atomic energy secrets from other countries.
Chao Teurg-yao (9), '=: - ? 11Y refe
Chao Chun re tl
g-yao (10), nuclear s-ieutist who returned from the US in
1950.
All Soviet names are approximati.ons from the Chinese. Numbers
in parentheses refer to appended characi,eru.
In July 1951, the ceremony of signing a secret Sine-Soviet Scientific
Cooperation Agreement was held in the building of the Academy of Sciences of
China in Peiping. Delegates signing for the Soviet Union were Nashinov (2),
vice-president of the Academy of Sciences USSR; Kudepov (3), professor of
radiology at Moscow State University; and Tsikhavenskiy (4), counselor at the
Soviet Embassy in Communist China. The representatives of Communist China
were Kuo Mo-.1o, Chen Po-ta, and Chien San-ch'iang (5). Attending th- cere-
mony as spectators were Chu Te, Chou En-lai, Lu Ting-i, Li Fu-ch'un, and
joviet Ambassador? Roshchin. Although the signing of the treaty was one of
the greatest events in Communist China in 1951, very little publicity concern-
ing the ceremony was given by the Hsin-bua She and the Peiping Jen-min Jih-pao,
5-sues of the Peiping Jen-min Jih- ao for all of July were searched and no
mention of an agreement was found.
NSRB
FBI
STAT
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The agreement is very complex. More than 2 weeks of repeated conferences
with the Soviet delegates w!-re required before Chen Po-ta understood what it
meant. The most important point in the agreement is that the Soviet Union has
agreed to exchange new scientific knowledge, and information with Communist
China.
Accordingly, the Soviet Union will soon send a group of "scholars" tc
carry on research work in the Academy of Sciences of China and its subsidiary
scientific institutes; will assign "teachers" to every university in China;
and will make photostatic copies of important archives kept in the Academ;; of
Sciences of China. In return, Chinese Communist students are to study in
Soviet universities and Chinese "scholars" are to carry on research in the
Academy of Sciences USSR. The method of exchanging scientific 'nformation has
also been worked out in detail. In addition, it has been decided that the
Soviet Union will aid Communist China in carrying out atomic energy research.
Since the agreement was signed, the Chinese Communists have continuously
sent available scientific research data to the Soviet Union. The valuable
data were taken from the Academia Sinica of the furmer government and included
information concerning meteorology, geology, natural resources, water conserv-
ancy, animal husbandry, etc. The plan of the Yangtze Basin Hydroelectric Con-
struction was also included. In exchange, the Chinese Communists have received
only 20,000-30,000 copies of scientific books and 20-30 scientific "specialists."
The Academy of Sciences of China formerly had under it the Institute of
Applied Physics which was headed by Yen Chi-t'zu (6) who concurrently headed
the Staff Office of the Academ; )f Sciences of China. The institute was re-
sponsible for atomic energy research. After the signing of the Sino-Soviet
Scientific Cooperation Agreement, Chinese Communists requested the Soviet
Union to help establish another organization to specialize in atomic energy
research. The Soviet Union rejected this request on the grounds that the
Chinese Communists had neither the specific equipment nor the personnel capable
of carrying on such research. Later, when Communist China sent Ch'en Po-ts
and others like Ko Pao-ch'uan (7), counselor of the Chinese Embassy in the
Soviet Union, to make further pleas, the Soviet Uniot. consented to Eend a few
so-called "atomic scientists" to Peiping to Kelp the Chinese Communists estab-
lish an Atcaic Energy Research Office under the jurisdiction of the Academy
of Sciences of China.
The director of the newly established Atomic Energy Research Office is
Chien San-chi'iang. The deputy directors are Cheftayev (8) and Chao Tsung-
yao `possibly Chao Chung-yao, who according to the Shanghai Chieh-fang Jih-
pao 19 January 1951, has been carrying on nuclear research at the Institute
of Modern Physics, Academy of Sciences of China, in Peiping, since returning
from the US in November 195`_] The researchers, in addition to university
professors such as Ts'er- Chao-lun (11), include five Soviet experts, namely,
L,ei unskiy (12), Bukr+i.cnanko (13), Nikov (14), Shpolskiy (15), and Komoyanov
(16).
Chien San-ch'iang is a French-educated atomic scientist who graduated
in physics from the Ch'ing-hua ping Hu7 a University in 1936. In 1946, he
and Ho Tse-hui (17) (w' o, later became his wife) discovered that the radium
nucleus could be separated into three and four parts. In 1948, Chien re-
turned to China and immediately joined the Communists in Shanghai.
The Atomic Energy Research Office has been established within the Acad-
emy of Sciences of China at No 10 Ma-ta-jen Hu-tuog in Peiping. Guards have
been placed at the entrance to inspect all who enter or depart from the office.
Actually, the Atomic Energy Research Office has no equipment. Researchers do
their work on paper. Even Chien San-ch'iang continued his work at the Ch'ing-
aua University's physics laboratory.
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chliang
and others want to install an~atom-splitting machine, Sptnh-e machine
requires a great amount of electricity their desires have not yet been rea-
lized. The machine, which requires high heat and high pressure, could only be
operated in An_tung where theca is the Yalu River Hydroelectric Plant, or near the
Hsiao-feng-man (18) Hydroelectric Power Plant at Chang-ch'un. The Soviet
Union is also reluctant to supply the Chinese Communists with the machine for
fear of the leakage of atomic secrets.
Consequently, Chien San-ch'iang is still at Ch'ing-hua University using
a little amount of radium obtained from the former Institute of Radium Research
in Shanghai, and is continuing his research in radioactivity. Ts'eng Chao-lun
has been teaching physics at the Peiping University and also has been engaging
in research concerning "heavy water." Chao Tsung-yao has been studying "ele-
ments corresponding to uranium and their fission" at the Ch'ing-hua University.
The Atomic Energy Research Office's greatest secrets' are not research
but the stolen atomic secrets. Deputy director Cheftayev is not an atomic
expert. The Soviet researchers are small fry who have been accustomed to
stealing atomic energy secrets from other countries. Naturally, to become good
scientific thieves they needed to have suitable scientific training and suit-
able experience in atomic energy research. They received training in stealing
secrets in the Soviet Union and later were sent out by the State Defense Com-
mittee of the Soviet Union. After the World War II they were separately con-
cealed in Canada, the US, England, France, and other countries and devoted
themselves exclusively to stealing atomic energy secrets. Some Chinese 3tu_
dents who had done research on atomic science in the US were appointed to the
Atomic Energy Research Office to learn stealing tactics from these Soviet re-
searchers in order to prepare them for greater usefulness.
The office which truly has to do with atomic energy is not the Atomic
Energy Research Office but the Geological Survey Office cf the Academy of
Sciences of China. The director of this office is Li Ssu-kuang (19) and the
advisor is Weng Wen-hao (20). The principal duty of this office is to search
nor uranium ores throughout China. Weng Wen-hc is concurrently the chief
advisor at a Sino-Soviet joint corporation called the Sinkiang Rare Metals
Development Company, which has its staff office at Lan-chou. The office is
staffed with more than ten Soviet specialistr and 20 workers to carry on the
survey. The development company has furnished them with an airplane so that
they can come and go anywhere in the Northwest China. Their most recent work
has been to survey and draw up a geological map of Sinkiang. It is reported
that this map is already half completed.
In a restricted desert area, approximately 200 square li in size, north
of Ch'i-t'ai and Foe-k'ang in Sinkiang, several thousand workers are at
present mining uranium ores. The development company has a research labora-
tory which specializes in analyz'.ng the ores and transporting them to be re-
fined in the Soviet Union. The Chinese Communists and the Soviets have re-
cently signed an agreement to establish a smelter near Urumchi and al-,o to
establish a hydroelectric plant nearby to supply power to the smelter.
But the construction of these establishments must await the completion
of a railroad connecting Ur "nchi with the Turk-Sib Railroad in the Soviet
Union. 'Only than can the heavy machinery needed at the smelter and power
plant be transported.
In November 1951, the director of the Institute of Physics fimeni P. N.
Lebedevl7in Moscow came by plane to Peiping. He invited Chien San-ch'iang
and Chao Tsung-yao to Moscow to carry on the research work. It is reported
that Chien San-ch'iang, accompanied by few researchers, has already left for
Moscow.
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