REPORT DEPICTS CHINA'S SPYING.

Byline: Jeff Gerth and James Risen The New York Times

A long-awaited congressional report that details a pattern of systematic and successful Chinese espionage to learn American nuclear secrets was released Tuesday, and President Clinton said he agreed that national security should be improved.

The contents of the report, which had begun seeping out in recent days, were unanimously approved by the five Republicans and four Democrats on the Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China.

Speaking at an event in Texas, the president praised the committee's ``careful and bipartisan'' approach and said his administration agreed with `the overwhelming majority'' of the report's 38 recommendations, which call for strengthening intelligence, security and export control programs.

Nonetheless, the politically sensitive investigation already has added new strains in relations between the United States and China, which has denied any espionage. The committee's criticisms of the Clinton administration's policy of easing technology exports to improve political relations also could become a campaign issue. The report already drew a call from House Majority Leader Richard Armey for the resignation of the president's national security adviser.

The 909-page, three-volume report concludes that China has stolen design secrets for all seven nuclear warheads currently deployed on American missiles, enabling Beijing to leap years ahead and modernize its nuclear weapons.

The systematic Chinese espionage began 20 years ago and almost certainly continues today, but it has not immediately altered the strategic balance between Washington and Beijing, according to the report. Still, the committee warns that China is exploiting stolen U.S. design secrets to develop a modernized and more mobile nuclear capability that could threaten U.S. troops and allies in the Asian-Pacific region.

Despite the committee's battle to maintain its bipartisan spirit, at Tuesday's unveiling, one of the Democrats on the panel questioned a key conclusion of the report, that the thefts had put China's nuclear weapons design information on a par with the United States.

The report contains new details of recent Chinese nuclear espionage. It also criticizes the export policies of the Clinton administration and the practices of two American satellite companies - Hughes Space and Communications International Inc. and Loral Space and Communications Ltd. - for sometimes subordinating national security to the ``bottom line.''

And it offers a new view into efforts by the Chinese military to funnel money to a Democratic fund-raiser in 1996. The report concludes that the money given by a Chinese military officer, Liu Choa-ying, who met President Clinton at a fund-raiser in 1996, ``was an attempt to better her position in the United States to acquire computer, missile and satellite technologies.''

At Tuesday's crowded news conference, members of the committee took pains to maintain a united front, stressing how issues of national security took priority over partisan rancor.

``Our final report shows Congress can work well together,'' said Christopher Cox, the Newport Beach Republican who chaired the panel.

``Chris Cox and I agreed that nine members could be Americans first, putting aside partisan considerations,'' said Norm Dicks of Washington, the ranking Democrat.

However, another Democratic member, Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, questioned the accuracy of the report's alarming finding that stolen American nuclear secrets had put China's nuclear weapons design capabilities ``on a par with our own.''

In his Texas remarks, the president also pledged to work with Congress to protect national security and continue his policy of engagement with Beijing. His promise to improve security was backed up by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, who said, ``I am trying to clean up a mess.''

But Clinton and his administration were criticized by two Republicans seeking a Presidential nomination, George W. Bush and Elizabeth Dole, both of whom said he should have reacted more quickly to initial reports of Chinese spying.

At its core, the report tells two intertwined stories: China's ``insatiable'' appetite for American technology to upgrade its military capability and Washington's laxity over sensitive exports and security at the nation's weapons laboratories.

The committee began its inquiry looking at a narrow subject: what was China learning from American companies who used Chinese rockets to launch satellites? But midway into its inquiry the committee discovered the nuclear espionage, which became its most serious avenue. In recent weeks, the report and the leaks of some of the report's discovery of Chinese nuclear espionage have caused a furor in Congress. In advance of the report, the White House made a point of emphasizing that the leaks of nuclear secrets from the weapons laboratories happened under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

The report criticizes loosened controls on exports of sensitive technologies, a cornerstone of Clinton's trade policies and commercial diplomacy, but does not pinpoint blame for the two decades of lax security at the weapons laboratories. But a principal finding of the committee is that the United States did not become ``fully aware of the magnitude of the problem'' until 1995.