1.   Berger said that, in relying on Chinese rockets, American companies did not risk passing restricted technology on to the Chinese.

2.   A Chinese rocket exploded shortly after liftoff in February.

3.   A recent investigation in Washington over whether American aerospace companies aided Chinese rocket makers has brought the Boeing venture and similar endeavors under close scrutiny.

4.   After the Chinese rocket exploded, a Hughes team shared information about the cause with the Chinese.

5.   But in the case of the Chinese contributions to the re-election campaign and the decision to put US communications satellites atop Chinese rockets is considerably thornier.

6.   By contracting with Chinese rocket companies to launch commercial satellites, American businesses have an incentive to help make Chinese rockets more reliable.

7.   Chinese rockets will launch the Loral satellite and have joined with the Philippine Satellite Corp. in the Mubuhay project.

8.   Clinton also continued his defense of a policy that allowed American aerospace companies to export sophisticated satellites for launching aboard Chinese rockets.

9.   Eight Deltas will launch five satellites while Russian and Chinese rockets will launch the other vehicles.

10.   For American companies, the benefit will be resumption of license applications to launch American satellites on Chinese rockets.