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Bureau finds no suspicious machine tool sales to PRC

Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) officials said yesterday they have not found any suspicious cases involving exports of high-precision machine tools to China as reported by the Japanese media.

The Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun had earlier reported that some numerical control lathes exported by Taiwanese makers had been used by the Chinese military to produce stainless steel components in missile devices.

Sankei Shimbun cited Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense as the source of its information, which the ministry has denied.

BOFT officials said they had also asked Japanese authorities for information about the report, but none had been able to provide any information on the matter.

The officials added that only Japan, Switzerland, Germany and the US have the ability to produce the high-precision lathes described by the Japanese daily.

After examining export licensing documents from Jan. 1 last year through March this year, the officials said that no suspicious cases were found in which local lathe makers imported high-precision numerical control lathes for reexport to China after assembly.
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