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-MAY, 1998-
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05/19/1998 Clinton urged to delay China trip
05/15/1998 Chung statements raises questions
05/11/1998 For The U.S., All Roads Lead To China
Clinton thinks he can do business with these guys. Will they disappoint him?
05/08/1998 As Yangtze River dam rises, questions arise
05/05/1998 China unveils the countdown clock at the entrance of the Revolutionary History Museum on Tiananmen Square on Tuesday

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Clinton urged to delay China trip

05/19/98- Updated 10:42 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Just weeks before President Clinton goes to China for a much-awaited summit meeting Republicans in Washington are intensifying charges that his party benefited from illegal Chinese contributions - and that the Chinese got something in return.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Monday that President Clinton should postpone his trip to China until the Justice Department determines whether two U.S. companies gave sensitive missile information to Beijing in 1996.

Gingrich is considering setting up a special committee to look the case and examine Clinton's decision this year to approve the export of satellite technology to China.

Amid a flurry of rhetoric from Capitol Hill, The Christian Science Monitor reported Tuesday that a state-owned Chinese aerospace company acknowledged a senior executive gave nearly $100,000 to Democratic Party fund-raiser Johnny Chung in 1996. Such an admission would mark the first time officials in Beijing have said Chinese funds, even if not directly tied to the communist government, went to Democratic coffers.

The Monitor quoted a spokeswoman for the China Aerospace Corp. as denying that the funds from Liu Chaoying, the daughter of the then-highest ranking officer in the Chinese People's Liberation Army, were part of a government conspiracy to influence the Clinton administration's foreign policy.

The donation "was done by Liu Chaoying acting as an individual," Zhang Lihui, a spokeswoman for China Aerospace, told the Monitor in Beijing. "She used her own financing rather than China Aerospace funds."

However, the spokesman quoted by the paper later denied being interviewed by the paper - she said it was her associate - and said she did not know whether Liu gave Chung any money.

Chung has told Justice Department investigators that $100,000 he gave the Democratic Party came from the Chinese army funneled to him by Liu.

Clinton is set to travel to China next month for a summit with President Jiang Zemin.

The Clinton administration has said the exports were approved under strict security provisions that protect sensitive information. Nevertheless, the waiver permitting the exports has become embroiled in a battle over foreign influence in political fund raising.

In urging Clinton to delay his visit to China, Gingrich led a parade of Republicans seizing on the reports of Chinese money going to the Democratic Party.

"I do not believe this president can go to China unless he clears up, in public, everything about Chinese illegal campaign funds and everything about national missile secrets going to China," Gingrich said in his hometown of Marietta, Ga.

Investigators must examine whether the technology transfer to China indirectly helped Pakistan, and therefore fueled the latest arms race in Asia, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said.

Gingrich said such a special committee would be small, perhaps five Republicans and three Democrats, and would be chaired by Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif.

Republican congressional aides who spoke on condition of anonymity said one problem Gingrich faced was concern that the panel be headed by a member satisfactory to other lawmakers to avoid the friction caused by Rep. Dan Burton's management of the investigation into Clinton's fund raising.

House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., opposes creating a special committee. "He thinks it ought to be done in the context of the (existing) committees," said spokeswoman Laura Nichols. "That what we have committees for."

Several House committees have been examining the missile issue and, despite administration pledges to cooperate, are hitting a wall as they try to uncover documents surrounding Clinton's decision to allow the export of satellite and missile technology to China.

Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre, the Pentagon's No. 2 official, told two House committee chairmen that he was under orders of the Justice Department to withhold documents surrounding Clinton's decision because of a pending criminal investigation. Copies of letters by Hamre and Attorney General Janet Reno were obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

The Justice Department, based on a classified report from the Pentagon, is investigating whether two U.S. defense contractors working with China on commercial satellite ventures may have violated security laws by providing Beijing a detailed report on a 1996 accident in which a Chinese rocket carrying a U.S.-built satellite exploded.

The concern is that the information provided by Loral Space and Communications Ltd. and Hughes Electronics might help China improve its ballistic missile arsenal.

Loral, in a statement Monday, denied that either it or Hughes made an independent investigation to determine cause of the launch failure. It said a review by several satellite companies, requested by insurance companies, provided no secret or classified information to the Chinese and only confirmed with Chinese conclusions about the failure.

"The entire activity was carried out openly," the statement said.

In February, with the Justice Department probe still pending, Clinton granted a waiver allowing the export of a Loral-built satellite to China along with related missile technology. Critics charge that the waiver undercut the federal investigation by making legal the actions Loral and Hughes had taken in providing information to China on the rocket explosion.

Loral Chairman Bernard L. Schwartz is a major financial backer of the Democratic Party.

By The Associated Press

From USA Today

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Chung statements raises questions

05/15/98- Updated 07:37 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Key members of Congress said Friday statements that fund-raiser Johnny Chung made to federal prosecutors reinforce suspicions that China tried to influence the 1996 presidential election. House Speaker Newt Gingrich called it "a very chilling story."

The chairman of the House campaign fund-raising investigation, Rep. Dan Burton, said the information provided by Chung also raises questions as to whether there was a link between the contributions and missile technology transfers to China.

Congressional sources knowledgeable about the case told The Associated Press Friday that Chung told Justice Department investigators he received some $300,000 from a Chinese aerospace official.

Chung said the official told him the money was for political contributions, according to House and Senate sources familiar with briefings that the FBI gave on Capitol Hill Thursday. The sources agreed to discuss the case only on grounds of anonymity.

Federal Election Commission records show that Chung contributed about $110,000 to the Democratic Party from June through September, 1996. Chung told the investigators he used the rest for himself, according to the sources.

The New York Times, which initially reported the story, said that aerospace official Liu Chao-ying - whose company is owned by the Chinese government - also is a lieutenant colonel in the People's Liberation Army.

The sources told the AP that Ms. Liu told Chung the funds came from Chinese intelligence. Ms. Liu's father is Gen. Liu Huaqing, who was a member of the Communist Party leadership and the top Chinese military commander. U.S. law forbids foreign governments from contributing to political campaigns.

Ms. Liu was photographed with President Clinton at a fund-raising event. Chung gained admission for her.

Gingrich said, "Chung ... visited the White House 45 times - that's an astonishing number of visits. There aren't many Americans who visited the White House 45 times. And he's only one person."

A White House spokesman, James Kennedy, said, "We had no knowledge about the source of Mr. Chung's funds or the background of Ms. Liu. In hindsight it was clearly not appropriate for Mr. Chung to bring her to see the president. We have found no record of her every having been to the White House."

Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., who conducted the Senate's campaign fund-raising investigation, said in an interview, "What we have here is apparently hard evidence of the execution of the China plan."

"Everybody acknowledged and agreed there was a plan. The big debate was whether it was executed and whether it involved the presidential campaign. That debate is now over," he said.

Thompson, who earlier suggested, but could not prove Chinese influence in the 1996 campaign, said Chung's statements "may be the tip of the iceberg." He said "a half-dozen other intermediaries were bringing money from China and other places."

Burton, R-Ind., sent his Government Reform and Oversight Committee staff on Friday to meet with Justice Department investigators. Burton said he would ask his panel to transfer all its documents on Chung and China Aerospace Holdings, Ms. Liu's company, to the Justice Department.

Democrats acknowledged that Chung's information, if proved true, would be significant.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the senior Democrat on Burton's committee who has consistently accused the Republicans of conducting a partisan investigation, said, "I have no problem giving the Justice Department any information we have."

"If true, this is deeply troubling. It would be the first solid evidence the Chinese government was implementing a plan to influence our elections," he said.

The senior Democrat on Thompson's Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Sen. John Glenn of Ohio, said, "I look forward to learning the truth about these allegations and ... whether or not they have any relationship to the China plan ... ."

Chung pleaded guilty in federal court last March to charges of funneling $20,000 in illegal contributions to Clinton's re-election campaign; charges involving an $8,000 donation to the campaign of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.; tax evasion; and fraudulently obtaining a $157,500 loan on his home.

Chung, who is now cooperating with federal prosecutors, is to be sentenced in July. His lawyer, Brian Sun, did not respond Friday to requests for comment.

By The Associated Press

From USA Today

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For The U.S., All Roads Lead To China
Clinton thinks he can do business with these guys. Will they disappoint him?

MAY 11, 1998 VOL. 151 NO. 18

By CHRISTOPHER OGDEN

Why are U.S. officials suddenly making tracks to China? U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky trekked to Beijing last month, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright blew through last week and President Bill Clinton is coming next month. It's not to rack up frequent flyer miles: you don't get them on government planes. The answer is that Clinton now ranks the U.S. relationship with China as America's No. 1 strategic concern. To be sure, no U.S. ally is closer than Britain, no military concern greater than nuclear stability in Russia and no economic threat more troubling than the potential implosion of Japan.

But as the President peers across his bridge to the 21st century, he recognizes that the world's fastest-rising economic and military power could become a dangerous menace if the relationship is mishandled, or a valuable partner if it's managed correctly. Vast differences remain. But with President Jiang Zemin and Prime Minister Zhu Rongji having succeeded revolutionary-era leaders Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng, Beijing, in Clinton's calculus, is finally in the hands of pragmatists with whom, as Margaret Thatcher once said famously about Mikhail Gorbachev, the West can do business. China, pursuing a Western market model as fast as it can, is clearly eager to play. Washington's goal is to ensure that it plays by international rules.

That was the clear message of Albright's visit last week, and it will be the subtext throughout Clinton's state visit in late June, the first by a U.S. leader since Chinese troops crushed pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989. Bilateral relations were volatile for years after that, punctuated by disputes over human rights abuses, including those in Tibet; Beijing's threats to Taiwan, in whose direction it test-fired missiles in 1996; China's huge trade surpluses with the U.S., peaking near $50 billion last year; and Beijing's export of missile technology to Iran and Pakistan.

All of these remain concerns, though of varying intensities. Just before arriving, for example, Albright made a few obligatory comments about human rights. Despite the recent releases of dissidents Wang Dan and Wei Jingsheng, she said, China's "repression of dissent and religious freedom has not ceased." That's true, but it's also true that both sides have come to implicit terms on the issue. Having learned it can spring more dissidents with honey than vinegar, the Clinton Administration--though not the U.S. Congress, which continues to pass resolutions demonizing China's record--has modulated its tone. For its part, China has recognized the win-win benefits of expulsion: it generates goodwill and ensures that the dissident is promptly forgotten.

Other events undergird Albright's comments in Beijing that the U.S. and China "have moved well down the road toward building a constructive, strategic partnership." After a first term in which the Pentagon and the departments of State and Commerce all had their own, often contradictory, China policies, Clinton seized on China's leadership transition to impose much-needed coherence on U.S. strategy and to draw Beijing into the global system. He began by showing China greater respect, easier to do given the positive impressions made by Zhu and Jiang, including the latter's statesmanlike trip to the U.S. last November.

Driven to grow quickly while maintaining stability, China has taken steps the U.S. is applauding. Beijing banned nuclear- and chemical-weapons testing, has shown the first stirrings of hesitance about selling nuclear materials to anyone with a checkbook and has been helpful in negotiations with North Korea, responsible in its take-over of Hong Kong and calmer about Taiwan.

On the economic front, although tariff barriers and piracy issues remain problems, China has gone a long way toward what the U.S. has hoped and urged: it is modeling its central bank after the U.S. Federal Reserve; it has maintained the value of the renminbi and thus helped contain the Asia currency crisis; it is privatizing state-run enterprises, reforming an outmoded financial system and slashing bureaucracy. If job losses from all this restructuring soar, however, labor unrest is likely. How Beijing handles that, and how Washington responds, will be crucial in determining China's stability and whether this era of good feelings will last.

Clinton is doing all in his power to ensure that it will. He has even agreed to Beijing's request that he visit no other countries en route to or from China. That was a mistake. Adding a stop in Tokyo to encourage Japanese economic reform would not diminish his China visit. A more secure China, not to mention a more mature Clinton, ought one day to recognize that in honest relationships that's not how friends treat friends.

From Time Magazine

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As Yangtze River dam rises, questions arise

Fengjie, an ancient cultural center along China's Yangtze River, is doomed to disappear as the world's largest dam takes shape. The controversial Three Gorges also calls for the forced relocation of more than one million people. But will such large-scale disruptions be outweighed by the dam's presumed benefits? Opinion is divided.

May 8, 1998 Web posted at: 2:46 p.m. EDT (1846 GMT)

FENGJIE, China (CNN) -- This small city, an ancient cultural center along the Yangtze River in central China, is doomed to disappear as the world's largest dam takes shape. The controversial Three Gorges dam project also calls for the forced relocation of more than 1 million people by the 2009 completion date.

But will such large-scale disruptions be outweighed by the presumed benefits of the multi-billion dollar dam? Opinion is divided.

Damming the Yangtze -- the world's third-longest river -- will create a reservoir 365 miles (600 km) long.

Pros and cons

In addition to forced evacuations, the project in Hubei province also means:

'Like a timebomb'

But the dam's opponents are not convinced. The project is one China cannot afford but will reap huge profits for some companies, says anti-dam activist Dai Qing.

The new dam-formed lake will force more than a million people from their homes

Critics also point out that pollution in Chongqing -- where countless streams of raw sewage already pour directly into the Yangtze -- could become even worse when the river is dammed and pollutants cannot be flushed to the sea.

"It's just like a timebomb," adds Prof. Liang Congjie of Friends of Nature. "We don't have the right to pass such a big risky project to our grandsons."

China's government says such problems have been considered and will be solved.

In Fengjie, many of the Chinese being forced from their homes by the project told CNN they're happy to cooperate with the government and move elsewhere, but Dai insists there is widespread opposition.

People are afraid to speak their minds, she says.

The relocations also present the potential for clashes between corrupt officials and residents angry over inadequate planning, international human rights groups have warned.

Despite critics at home and abroad, many Chinese seem willing to pay the price, and take the risks, to build the world's biggest dam.

Correspondent Gary Strieker contributed to this report.

From CNN

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China unveils the countdown clock at the entrance of the Revolutionary History Museum on Tiananmen Square on Tuesday

May 5, 1998 Web posted at: 10:29 a.m. EDT (1429 GMT)

BEIJING (CNN) -- China's preparations to recover Macau from Portuguese rule took a higher profile Tuesday with the unveiling of a massive countdown clock facing Tiananmen Square.

The giant clock on the front of a museum for the 1949 Communist takeover of China showed that 594 days -- or more than 51 million seconds -- remained Tuesday before the Portuguese colony reverts to Chinese control on December 20, 1999.

Macau, a 6.6-square mile tourist and gambling enclave at the tip of south China, was settled 442 years ago by Portuguese traders.

The clock, with five red stars symbolizing China and Macau's new white lotus seal, is similar to one that counted down the days and seconds to Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule last year.

The unveiling ceremony coincided with the first meeting of a committee picked by China to prepare for Macau's handover.  The committee, headed by Vice Premier Qian Qichen, wraps up its meeting Wednesday in Beijing.

Setting up the committee "signifies that the preparatory work for China's resumption of the exercise of sovereignty over Macau has entered into a new phase," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said at a briefing.

China set up a similar committee to prepare for Hong Kong's handover last July. But unlike the Hong Kong transition, which was marred with years of squabbling, there is no vocal pro-democracy movement in Macau and little opposition to Chinese rule. As a result, the Macau handover has generated little international attention or controversy and relations between China and Portugal remain cordial.

The resumption of sovereignty over Macau "will be another major event of the Chinese nation and will be of profound significance for the final realization of the reunification of the motherland," Zhu said.

China hopes the return of Hong Kong and Macau will help pave the way for eventual reunification with Taiwan. China regards the island, ruled separately since 1949 by the Nationalists, as a renegade province.

A recent spate of gangland violence in Macau may be the only problem threatening the handover.

Police say that rival Chinese gangs are battling for control over Macau's famous casinos. They're also fighting for control of illegal operations like smuggling, money laundering and prostitution ahead of Beijing's takeover.

Police believe a recent spate of shooting deaths in Macau is linked to the gang wars.

But Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho, a member of the 100-person preparatory committee who attended the unveiling ceremony, said he expects the handover to be "extremely smooth."

He said the major tasks facing Macau were fighting organized crime and moving toward closer economic cooperation with Zhuhai and other cities in the neighboring Chinese province of Guangdong.

"I'm confident of this, in spite of all this violence. It's not going to last very long. I think that now that the government has taken action it's going to improve considerably," Ho said.

Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From CNN

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