Sino-Burma, Albright China-bound, D

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Subject: Sino-Burma, Albright China-bound, Dartmouth

wtn-editors@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> 
> ------------------------   World Tibet Network News   
 Chinese Embassy Role in Fund-Raising Probed (WP)

> By Bob Woodward and Brian Duffy
> Washington Post Staff Writers
> February 13, 1997
> 
> A Justice Department investigation into improper political fund-raising
> activities has uncovered evidence that representatives of the People's
> Republic of China sought to direct contributions from foreign sources to
> the Democratic National Committee before the 1996 presidential campaign,
> officials familiar with the inquiry said.
> 
> Sensitive intelligence information shows that the Chinese Embassy on
> Connecticut Avenue NW here was used for planning contributions to the DNC,
> the sources said. Some information was obtained through electronic
> eavesdropping conducted by federal agencies.
> 
> The information gives the Justice Department inquiry what is known as a
> foreign counterintelligence component, elevating the seriousness of the
> fund-raising controversy, according to some officials.
> 
> The sources declined to provide details about the scope of the evidence
> relating to the alleged efforts by the Chinese representatives. They also
> declined to specify what foreign contributions might have been involved,
> but they said the new evidence now being scrutinized in the inquiry is
> serious.
> 
> A Chinese Embassy spokesman denied yesterday that his government had
> anything to do with improper efforts to influence the administration. "We
> have done nothing of that sort," the spokesman said.
> 
> White House press secretary Michael McCurry said yesterday that "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 Chinese government led Justice Department
> lawyers and FBI executives to increase the number of FBI special agents
> working on a special investigative task force from a handful to 25,
> including several specialists in foreign counterintelligence
> investigations, sources said. Laura Ingersoll, a Justice Department
> attorney assigned a leading role on the fund-raising task force, has
> security clearances to investigate a variety of sensitive intelligence
> matters, officials said.
> 
> The new dimension to the fund-raising investigation could result in
> Attorney General Janet Reno eventually recommending that the matter be
> turned over to an independent counsel, according to one well-placed source.
> 
> Reno so far has declined requests for an independent counsel, saying that
> the Justice Department task force can conduct a full and independent
> inquiry and that there is no specific and credible allegation of wrongdoing
> against any of the senior executive branch officials covered by the
> Independent Counsel Act. Such a finding would have to be made by the
> Justice Department task force before Reno could recommend appointment of an
> independent counsel.
> 
> Washington and Beijing have been at odds over human rights and trade
> issues, but the Clinton White House has been seeking recently to improve
> relations.
> Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright is traveling to Beijing later this
> month, and President Clinton announced in his State of the Union message
> that he also would visit. He has extended an invitation to Chinese
> President Jiang Zemin to come to Washington.
> 
> The Chinese effort to win influence with the Clinton administration can be
> traced to 1993, one source said. During the Reagan and Bush
> administrations, the Chinese government felt comfortable dealing with
> Washington.
> 
> During the 1992 presidential campaign, authorities in Beijing spoke openly
> about wanting Bush to win reelection because he was an "old friend" of
> China. Clinton had criticized the Bush administration during the campaign
> for "coddling" Beijing and giving China most-favored-nation trade status
> after the 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square.
> 
> After Clinton defeated Bush, Chinese officials were uncertain about how to
> deal with the new administration, officials said, even though as president,
> Clinton essentially adopted the Bush policy toward Beijing. The Chinese
> Foreign Ministry has long urged the leadership in Beijing to increase its
> lobbying efforts in Washington, arguing that China has lagged behind Taiwan
> and Israel in trying to influence U.S. policy.
> 
> Some investigators suspected a Chinese connection to the current
> fund-raising scandal because several DNC contributors and major
> fund-raisers had ties to Beijing.
> 
> Last February, Charles Yah Lin Trie, a fund-raiser for the Democratic
> National Committee, used his influence with party officials to bring Wang
> Jun, head of a weapons trading company owned by the Chinese military, to a
> White House coffee with Clinton.
> 
> Wang also heads a prominent, state-owned investment conglomerate. Clinton
> has since said he should not have met with Wang, and $640,000 in checks
> that Trie delivered to president's legal defense fund has been returned
> because of questions about the source of the funds.
> 
> Another reason investigators suspected a Chinese connection was the role of
> John Huang, a former Commerce Department official and DNC fund-raiser now
> at the center of the campaign controversy. An American citizen born in
> China and raised in Taiwan, Huang has said he now has no friends or
> relatives in China. But Huang is a former executive of the Lippo Group, a
> highly profitable Indonesian conglomerate owned by the Riady family, who
> are ethnic Chinese. Lippo has extensive interests in China, including
> approval to build a power plant in Fujian Province, Huang's place of birth.
> 
> In 1993, Lippo sold 50 percent of its holdings in one of its banks, Hong
> Kong Chinese Bank -- where Huang was a vice president in the mid-1980s --
> to a corporation run by the Chinese government.
> 
> Huang was not the only Lippo executive to get a job with the Clinton
> administration. In December 1994, U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor
> named Lippo's president of securities, Charles De Queljoe, to the
> Investment and Services Advisory Committee. Huang had sought jobs at the
> State Department and the National Security Council staff for De Queljoe, a
> big Democratic giver, in an early 1993 letter to the White House.
> 
> Last month, Rep. Gerald B.H. Solomon (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Rules
> Committee, asked FBI Director Louis J. Freeh to investigate Huang and the
> Lippo Group, 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 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.
> 
> Huang was given a top-secret clearance at Commerce after what Republicans
> have called a lax background investigation. Despite Huang's extensive ties
> to Lippo, the background investigation was limited to his activities in the
> United States because he had lived here for more than five years. Commerce
> officials now say they wish a foreign background check had been done, even
> though it was not required.
> In preparation for his job at Commerce, Huang received an interim security
> clearance while he was still working at Lippo. But Commerce Department
> officials said that did not entitle him to see any classified information,
> and they maintain he saw none. Because of a bureaucratic error, the
> officials said, Huang retained his top-secret clearance after he left the
> Commerce Department to become a DNC vice chairman in December 1995.
> 
> During his 18 months at Commerce, Huang was scheduled to attend 37
> intelligence briefings, including briefings on China, and saw more than two
> dozen intelligence reports. From his Commerce Department office, Huang made
> more than 70 phone calls to a Lippo-controlled bank in Los Angeles. The
> calls are now being scrutinized by the Justice Department task force.
> 
> Huang's message slips from the Commerce Department also show a call from
> one Chinese Embassy 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, he had three meetings scheduled with Chinese
> government officials. He was slated to go on a U.S. government-sponsored
> trip to China in June 1995 that was canceled. He attended a policy
> breakfast at the 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 on
> Massachusetts Avenue NW on Oct. 11, claiming a $5 reimbursement for taxicab
> fare. The expense records indicate Huang did not return to his office at
> Commerce until the following day -- when he took another $5 cab ride, not
> from the Indonesian Embassy but, according to his records, from the
> "residence of the Chinese ambassador."
> 
> Staff writers Susan Schmidt, Sharon LaFraniere and Lena H. Sun, special
> correspondent Anne Farris and research assistant Jeff Glasser contributed
> to this report.
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 2. Chinese Ambassador Speaks at Dartmouth
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> By Eun Lee Koh and Nima R. Taylor
> 
> HANOVER, New Hampshire, 12 February -- The Chinese Ambassador to the United
> States, Li Daoyu, praised China's economic progress and skirted questions
> on human rights and Tibet before a packed Dartmouth College auditorium on
> Tuesday night.
> 
> Li said 1997 is particularly significant for the Chinese because it marks
> the 19th year since Deng Xiaoping's revolution, which opened up business
> opportunities for the outside world, including the United States. "We have
> tried to transform [China's] economy into a social market economy and open
> its market to more international partners," he explained in at-times
> halting English. Since opening its market, China has rapidly integrated
> into the world market, Li said. Over the past 19 years, trade has grown
> from $20 billion to $290 billion.
> 
> In the 1980's, China's Gross National Product rose about eight percent and
> has been rising at 11 percent annually for the past six years. Li pointed
> out that life expectancy in China has doubled since 1945, going from 55 to
> 70. "With the income rising within the past years, our people's quality of
> life has improved steadily," Li said. "People are living much longer and
> are enjoying better lives."
> Economic reform will remain China's top priority, the Ambassador said. In
> order to accomplish this, he noted, China will need full cooperation from
> all countries, including the US.
> 
> Sino-US relations must be based on a long-term perspective, Li declared,
> saying that China works to increase trust and cooperation, and reduce
> trouble and confrontation, but "it takes two to Tango" and the US must
> reciprocate. Li outlined five points which he saw as concerns shared by
> China and the US: Peace and stability of Asia, especially the APEC nations,
> and the Middle East, especially the Persian Gulf; a common responsibility
> as nuclear-capable nations; fighting international crime and drugs;
> protecting the global environment; and friendly cultural exchanges.
> 
> Addressing the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty, Li said "The
> cessation of Hong Kong for 150 years was a national shame, and this shame
> will be cleared. Hong Kong's return to the motherland has been a
> long-cherished wish of the Chinese people." As to possible reunification
> with Taiwan, Li said he doubts a peaceful reunification can occur until
> Taiwan accepts a "One China" policy. "Taiwan authorities have been going
> down the dangerous road of separation," he warned.
> 
> When asked about China's invasion and cultural genocide in Tibet, and how
> he thinks China's actions in Tibet will "affect China's drive to take its
> place as a respectable world leader," the Ambassador paused for a moment,
> frowning and tapping his fingers on the podium. He claimed that Tibet has
> been part of China since the 7th Century and that Tibetans enjoy "full
> development, full freedom" and a "fully autonomous status." He said that
> there were "some violations" of human rights during the Cultural
> Revolution, but that China is now respecting Tibet's religion and
> civilization, as evidenced by China's donations to monasteries, its efforts
> to publish books in the Tibetan language, and its promotion of ethnic
> dances and songs.
> 
> As the Dartmouth professor running the talk was about to read him the next
> question, the Ambassador snapped, "What, human rights?" Before the
> professor could respond, Li proceded to explain that the Chinese people
> have a different view of human rights, holding the family and society above
> the individual. "The most important human right in China is right to
> development," he said. "We have to feed, clothe, and house billions of
> people."
> 
> Li also addressed a question about the impact of China's development on the
> environment, particularly global warming. "We are aware of the warming-up
> question," he said, but pointed out that China is still behind the US in
> carbon dioxide emissions. China will meet its increasing energy needs with
> more coal, hydroelectric, and nuclear power plants, and China will be
> "looking forward to US assistance" on such projects, Li said.
> 
> "China will continue to develop friendly relations with all countries," Li
> affirmed. "It is always China's commitment that countries should respect
> each other, engage in peaceful cooperation, and work for common prosperity
> regardless of difference in ideology or culture."
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 3. Chinese academics refute US human rights report, criticize
>         American justice
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> (Xinhua is the official news agency of the People's Republic of China)
> 
> Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 1640 gmt 5 Feb 97
> 
> At a meeting in Beijing on 5th February, Chinese academics debated and
> refuted the US government's report on human rights. Several scholars said
> the report was an example of some countries working to " demonize" China.
> One academic argued that "in fact, the Chinese constitution contains more
> articles on human rights protection than the American constitution does and
> the Chinese stipulations and measures are more concrete" . Statistics on
> American crime and prison populations were produced to show that the US
> judicial system was unable "to compete with Chinese justice in cracking
> down on crimes and safeguarding individual human rights and citizens'
> freedoms" and thus "the US government is not qualified to find fault with
> China in this respect" . The following is the text of a report by Xinhua
> news agency:
> 
> Beijing, 5th February: A group of Chinese scholars have strongly criticized
> the US State Department Human Rights Country Reports for the year 1996,
> which was released last week.
> 
> At a seminar in Beijing today [5th February], the scholars maintained that
> the January 30 State Department report violates the goals and basic
> principles of the UN Charter and completely ignores the progress that China
> has made in protecting human rights.
> 
> This malicious and slanderous attack on China's human rights record only
> serves to expose its real intention of interfering in other
> countries'internal affairs under the excuse of human rights, according to
> human rights researchers and experts in the fields of history, philosophy,
> law, social sciences and journalism.
> 
> "The report is full of groundless accusations and intentional
> fabrications," Tian Dan, deputy secretary-general of the China Society for
> the Study of Human Rights, commented. He cited the report' s allegation
> that "Chinese authorities also detained foreigners visiting Tibet, searched
> them" , claiming that a visiting foreign scholar, Ngawang Choephel, was
> detained by Chinese authorities and sentenced to 18 years in prison for
> making a documentary film about Tibetan's performing arts.
> 
> The facts, however, are somewhat different. According to Tian, the
> 30-year-old native of the Zanda County of Tibet's Ngari Prefecture, who
> used to be a teacher in the song and dance troupe of the Dalai Lama's
> "government in exile" , was sent by the Dalai Lama clique in July of 1995
> to gather information in Tibet under the guise of making a documentary
> about Tibetan performing arts, with equipment and funding provided by a
> certain country.
> 
> Ngawang Choephel followed an `outline for intelligence gathering'that had
> been prepared, in Lhasa, Shanna, Nyingchi and Xigaze in the Tibet
> Autonomous Region. The Chinese security departments obtained ample evidence
> to prove the espionage charge and arrested him in accordance with the law,
> Tian noted.
> 
> Ngawang Cheophel confessed to his wrongdoing, and was sentenced to 18 years
> in prison by the Xigaze Intermediate People's Court. He was also deprived
> of his political rights for four years, Tian noted.
> 
> After the initial ruling, Ngawang Cheophel, appealed the sentence to a
> higher court and the second hearing is going on, Tian noted.
> 
> "Criminals like Ngawang Cheophel, who endanger state security and engage in
> espionage, would be punished in accordance with the law in any country with
> a sound legal system," Tian pointed out.
> 
> "It is a complete distortion of the truth for the United States government
> to call a person engaging in espionage as a visiting scholar and his
> punishment an example of China's violation of human rights," Tian said.
> 
> Tian gave another example of the US government's accusing China of
> intolerance in relation to human right groups in the report, claiming that
> Wang Dan was given an 11-year prison term in 1996 for intending to
> investigate human rights conditions in China in 1994.
> 
> In fact, Tian said, Wang's conviction was upheld because of his activities
> where he intended to "conspire to subvert the government" , something that
> was backed by evidence provided by Wang himself.
> 
> "The United State government was expecting to repeat its lies so often that
> it would make it sound real," Tian explained.
> 
> A number of scholars pointed out that the so-called "evidence" provided by
> the report was mainly based on Western media reports, the statements of
> overseas "democratic movement activists" , and on distortions of speeches
> of Chinese officials.
> 
> A human rights report based on this kind of "evidence" obviously arises
> from ulterior motives and is irresponsible, he said.
> 
> Dong Yunhu, a professor at the Central Party School of the Chinese
> Communist Party, said that the United States government in its report found
> fault with China for "violation of internationally accepted norms" , and
> "absence or inadequacy of laws providing for fundamental human rights" .
> 
> In fact, the Chinese constitution contains more articles on human rights
> protection than the American constitution does and the Chinese stipulations
> and measures are more concrete. "The US side is simply not qualified to
> comment on human rights protection in China," Dong noted.
> 
> The constitution of the United States does not even acknowledge economic,
> social and cultural rights as part of human rights, and still does not
> provide for the principle of ethnic and sexual equality, as well as
> equality of rights for all citizens, Dong said.
> 
> There is not one word in its constitution calling for or entitling the
> government to promote human rights, he added.
> 
> "The United States' constitution is below the international level in terms
> of human rights protection," Dong quoted a US constitutional scholar as
> saying.
> 
> The United States tops the world in violent crimes, which victimize six
> million people annually and kill 24,000 of its citizens, according to a
> recent US report. The death rate from violent crimes is ten times that of
> China.
> 
> There are currently over 1.63 million inmates in the country, or 6.15 per
> thousand of the total population, and over 5.36 million people or 2.8 per
> cent of the adult population serving a sentence at the moment, according to
> latest official US statistics.
> 
> "The figures are times higher than those in China," Dong said, adding that
> "this demonstrates the judicial system's inability to compete with Chinese
> justice in cracking down on crimes and safeguarding individual human rights
> and citizens' freedoms, and that the US government is not qualified to find
> fault with China in this respect."
> 
> Liu Wenzong, a professor at the Foreign Affairs Institute of China, and Liu
> Nanlai, a research fellow with the China Academy of Social Sciences, said
> that the world is made up of sovereign states and that one state cannot put
> itself above another.
> 
> The US State Department has been issuing yearly Human Rights Reports, they
> pointed out, making unreasonable accusations against other countries but
> without saying just which international organization, international
> conference, or country has given it the right to be " human rights judge of
> the world" .
> 
> The US government is not "a government of the world, nor does it have the
> status or the right to spread irresponsible comments and accusations
> against others," Liu Wengzong said.
> 
> What is more, the United States itself is plagued with notorious racial
> discrimination, violence, terrorism, an AIDS outbreak, an increasing number
> of single parent families, homeless people, prejudice against women, abuse
> of children and other human rights woes, Liu Nanlai said.
> 
> Its criticisms have no legal, moral or factual basis and are bound to meet
> with opposition from an increasing number of countries, and strong
> condemnation from the entire international community, he said.
> 
> Tian Jin, a research fellow at the China Centre of International Studies,
> pointed out that in recent years, when the United States maliciously
> attacked China's human rights situation, China has made overall progress in
> human rights undertakings.
> 
> As a populous yet economically under-developed country, China has taken
> great efforts towards the protection of human rights, making
> world-acknowledged achievements, he noted. In 1996, on the basis of
> sustained and rapid economic development, China strengthened the building
> of democracy and the legal system. In particular, he added, work on
> grassroots democracy and amendments to the "Criminal Procedural Law" won
> praise from the world in general.
> 
> "It set people thinking that the US ignored all those basic facts and
> distorted China's image as one with a worsening human rights situation," he
> said.
> 
> Huang Nansen, a professor at Beijing University, said that the US Human
> Rights Report, which refers to China as a "hell" , serves as a "
> masterpiece" of "demonizing China" by anti-China forces in the world, and
> "reflected the US authorities' anti-China mentality marked by antipathy and
> gloom."
> 
> Professor Zhang Hongyi, of Beijing Normal University, pointed to the
> political prejudice of the US report, noting that the crux of the problem
> is that, as long as China keeps its socialist system, the US will see it as
> an "authoritarian state" with no human rights to speak of.
> 
> Xiong Lei, the deputy director of the Beijing Women Journalists
> Association, said that US real interest lies in its attempt to impose the
> human rights problem on and then demonize China, so as to justify its
> malice towards China. "While the US strives to impose its "format of
> democracy" upon other countries, the practice itself is extremely
> undemocratic," she added.
> 
> Zhou Jue, the deputy director of the China Society for the Study of Human
> Rights, who presided over the seminar, noted that the US report, instead of
> evaluating China's human rights situation in an objective and fair way,
> lauded a small number of criminals who violated the interests of the broad
> masses of people as "fighters for human rights" .
> 
> This shows that the US true purpose is to interfere in China's internal
> affairs, to vilify China and to contain China's development. he concluded.
> 
> The US State Department keeps issuing the yearly reports, passing judgement
> on the human rights situations in the world according to its own standards,
> he said, adding that such provocative practice runs against trends of
> development and impedes the development of human rights in the world, Zhou
> said.
> 
> ------------ -----------------------------------------------------------
> end of WTN 97/01/12 23:50 GMT
> 
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