The choice of China "leaves us extremely perplexed," said Jean-Yves Le Gall, CEO of French rocket launch company Arianespace, speaking to AFP on the margins of the annual Satellite trade show and conference in Washington.

Earlier this month China inked the deal with Eutelsat to launch the company's W3B satellite on one of its Long March rockets -- much to the chagrin of detractors like Le Gall, who fear that the agreement will anger the United States.

Le Gall noted that the United States in its 1998 International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) rules, prohibits export and import of defense-related articles and services that it produces to certain countries, including China.

Even though the Eutelsat satellite in question contains no American-made parts, Le Gall said that it does contain equally sensitive European-made components, which flouts the spirit of the ITAR rule.

"Various governments -- most notably the United States -- have good reasons for wishing that there not be a technology transfer to China," he told AFP.

Le Gall added that in his view, Eutelsat's decision to let China launch its satellite could be interpreted as being "hostile to the United States."

"We are shocked that it (the policy) has been put in place," he said.

Last month US Representative Dana Rohrabacher at a hearing in Congress, also slammed the arrangement to use Chinese rockets to launch private communications satellites.

"We need to make sure that out high tech exports aren't strangled by regulations. On the other hand, we need to remain vigilant that our advanced technology doesn't end up in the hands of potential enemies or nations which proliferate weapons of mass destruction," said the Republican from California, who is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and vocal in US military affairs.

"We know exactly which nations these are, and we must make absolutely sure that whatever changes we enact to ITAR and other export regulations, that these scofflaw and rogue nations are barred from receiving our high tech systems," he said.

Rohrbacher implied it may be necessary for Washington to apply economic pressure on Eutelsat to get it to reverse its decision.

"Eutelsat sells tens of millions of dollars worth of satellite services to the US government," he said.

"Clearly, this is the beginning of a game of chicken between Eutelsat and the Obama Administration. If the Obama Administration does nothing, the message is clear: transferring technology to proliferators of weapons of mass destruction like the Peoples Republic of China is a perfectly acceptable business model."

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