Taiwanese Program Terminated at MIT

MIT terminated this week a program to train 15 Taiwanese engineers in inertial navigation technology six months early because the technology could be used in the design and construction of military ballistic missiles.

The program, under the aegis of the Center for Advanced Engineering Study, was originally meant to provide technical "entrepreneurs" for the establishment of commercial industries on Taiwan.

The U.S. Department of State's Munitions Control office told MIT in May that parts of the program "would not be in furtherance of the foreign policy and national security objectives of the U.S.," Dr. Thomas F. Jones, MIT vice president for research, said earlier this week.

Letter in May

In a letter sent in May to MIT president Jerome B. Wiesner, an Institute Committee on International Commitments reported it was "unable to find convincing evidence that the objective of the training as it is being carried out is other than military."

The evidence on which the committee based its conclusion was contained in a report to the MIT faculty issued that same month. The report states the 15 trainees were employees of the Chung Shan Institute which deals primarily in military research, and that 12 of them graduated from military academies.

The committee recommended that some non-military technology be taught in place of the inertial navigation technology or that the program be ended.

Of 77 advertised job openings at the Chung Shan Institute, the committee reported in May, at least 20 were for missile experts and one of the advertisements identified the employer as the Chung Shan Institute of the Taiwan Ministry of Defense.

The report also says that the MIT training program does not stress commercial applications and that the kind of technology studied is relevant for both commercial and military purposes.

After the report appeared, Jones said he and an official of National Taiwan University, which had contracted for the program, discussed possible alternative technologies for the program. He added that they decided there was not enough time left in the program to make a change practical.

The program has been officially controversial because the U.S. government's relations with the People's Republic of China have improved since the program was approved in 1974.

Many liberal and leftist groups have objected to the program because of the military dictatorship in power on Taiwan and the suppression of the resident Taiwanese by the numerous mainland Chinese who fled after the revolution in 1949.

Jones said the project first came to his attention in early spring following demonstrations which "rang the alarm." He said the MIT Office of Research had approved the program when it began two years ago but it received about 12 proposals a day and thus did not have time to look deeply into it. He said that relations with Taiwan were different at that time.

MIT is currently providing 54 Iranians with nuclear power reactor training under a similar program paid for by the Iranian government. That program has not yet come under fire.

Sophia C. Stern, administrative assistant to the director of the Harvard Institute for International Development, said Harvard does not have and never has had any programs with Taiwan.