International Trade Economics - Page A1
February 13, 1997 The Clinton-Communist Chinese Probe
by William Heartstone, Staff Writer, The Daily Republican NewspaperWASHINGTON DESK - The allegations of illegal and improper DNC/Clinton-Gore Campaign contributions which has been under investigation by the Justice Department have just taken on the most serious political and legal implications.
The Washington Post reported today that it had learned of sensitive counter-espionage intelligence information that the Clinton Administration has been involved in solicitation of the Communist Chinese government for DNC/Clinton-Gore Campaign contributions. Some of the information was obtained through electronic eavesdropping conducted by federal agencies.
Investigation into improper political fund-raising activities has uncovered evidence that representatives of the Communist People's Republic of China were contacted by John Huang seeking contributions from the Communist People's Republic of China to the Democratic National Committee before the 1996 presidential campaign, officials familiar with the inquiry said. The Post article states that some contacts were made at the Communist China Embassy in the shadow of the Clinton White House right in the heart of Washington, D.C.
The foreign counterintelligence information raises the level of seriousness of the Justice Department inquiry in the fund-raising controversy, according to some officials.
A Communist Chinese Embassy spokesman contacted by the Post denied yesterday that his government had anything to do with improper fund-raising. "We have done nothing of that sort," the spokesman said.
Clinton White House press secretary Michael McCurry hedged his remarks to reporters and said ' ... to the best of my knowledge, no one here had any knowledge of' the allegations concerning the Chinese. He said the White House would have no further comment.
The evidence relating to the Communist Chinese government served as grounds for the Justice Department lawyers and the FBI director to increase to 25, the number of FBI special agents working on a special investigative task force, officials said.
Attorney General Janet Reno has declined numerous requests for an independent counsel to investigate the illegal contributions of the DNC/Clinton-Gore Campaign. The entanglement with the Communist Chinese fund-raising could now force Janet Reno's hand and lead to her recommending the matter be turned over to an independent counsel.
Congressman Gerald B.H. Solomon (R) chairman of the House Rules Committee asked FBI Director Louis J. Freeh to investigate Huang and the Lippo Group, and indirectly the Communist Chinese government involvement with an eye to 'potential economic espionage against the United States by a foreign corporation having direct ties to the People's Republic of China.'
Solomon said then that he was concerned about the Clinton appointee John Huang's access to intelligence information and dozens of calls Huang made from Commerce to the Lippo Group. He also asked Freeh to investigate apparent discrepancies in the birth date listed on Huang's visa application forms and his government employment forms.
Huang was employed at Lippo for nine years before he joined the Commerce Department as deputy assistant secretary for international economic policy. His severance package from Lippo totaled $788,750.
The Clinton White House authorized John Huang for a top-secret clearance at Commerce after an cursory and incomplete background investigation. Despite Huang's extensive ties to Lippo, and relations with the Communist Chinese government, the background investigation was limited solely to his activities in the United States,although he had only lived in the U.S. for a short time.
Clinton White House precautions were so 'laid-back' that while Huang was employed by the Indonesian Lippo Group , and before he began working at the Commerce Department under Ron Brown, Huang was cleared by president Clinton for an interim security clearance. Commerce records reveal that Huang was involved in 37 intelligence briefings, including briefings on U.S. policy regarding the Communist government of The People's Republic of China, and saw more than two dozen intelligence reports.
Then, in violation of federal security regulations, Commerce officials say, Huang continued to have unrestricted access to top-secret material after he left the Commerce Department to become a DNC vice chairman in December 1995.
During the 18 months Huang was working for Ron Brown at Commerce, he made more than 70 telephone calls to the Lippo Group from his Commerce Department office telephone. He also received messages from a Communist Chinese government official in February 1995 and three calls from the embassy's commercial minister in June and August of that year.
According to Huang's Commerce Department desk calendar entries, obtained by The Washington Post, Huang had three meetings scheduled with Communist Chinese government officials. He also planned to attend a U.S. government-sponsored trip to Communist China in June 1995. He attended a policy breakfast at the Communists Chinese Embassy in October 1995 and a dinner there the same month, his calendar shows.
One of the many unexplained records from Huang's files shows an unusual travel pattern in the fall of 1995. His expense account records show he left his Commerce Department office to visit the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 11, 1995 claiming a $5 reimbursement for taxicab fare. Then, again on the following day an entry in the expense record shows that he obtained a Washington D.C. cab from the Communist Chinese ambassador's residence.