The Great Stonewall of China

...Burton had an idea: since the Chinese would not allow investigators to visit China, perhaps the investigators could be part of the more than i,000 people who would travel with the president...

...Department prosecutors, it turned out, had used Attorney General Janet Reno's decision not to appoint an independent counsel as grounds for shutting off investigation of the most critical areas of the fundraising scandal...

...The binders contained fugitive fundraiser John Huang's personal copies of check-tracking forms, which are the papers Democratic National Committee officials used to keep track of donors...

...Jiang added that he had discussed the issue with Clinton, telling him the Chinese government had conducted a "very earnest" investigation into the matter and found nothing...

...Not only has the government of China refused to cooperate with the investigation...

...Jiang had mentioned allegations that the Chinese government funneled money into the 1996 American political campaigns...

...We could tell from the wire transfer information exactly what account the money was wired from in Macau," says Tim Griffin...

...And we have passed those wishes across to the Chinese...

...Burton found that even harder to believe...

...It might be useful to ask: Has the Clinton foreign policy team been any more helpful to the Justice Department campaign finance inquiry...

...Burton again asked for help...

...We had a meeting in the spring with the Justice people where we raised the issue...

...A top Burton staffer tells a revealing story...

...We believe we have gone the extra mile here...

...He wrote to the president asking him to "insist that the Chinese government provide this committee and the Justice Department with all information being sought from the Bank of China...

...Indeed, that seems the crux of the problem...

...Also named on the check was Chen's wife, Yue Chu, a U. S. legal resident who livesin the suburbs of Washington...

...Qian again denied any Chinese involvement, and there is no evidence that Albright's efforts went any further...

...In February, Trie returned to the United States to face indictment on charges of funneling illegal campaign contributions...

...Well regarded by Burton and other Republicans, LaBella began to produce results...

...I'm not going to let this drop," Burton says, "for as long as I am chairman of this committee...

...The project ran into a brick wall when the Chinese refused to issue visas for the investigators to enter China...

...And Keshi Zhan wrote a check for $12,500...

...I think they are sheer fabrications...

...We have gotten no help from them," Burtonsays of the administration's response...

...We started with two binders of check-tracking forms," says Tim Griffin, a Burton lawyer who has spent more than a year meticulously documenting illegal contributions in the 1996 campaign...

...Still, LaBella concedes that, up to now, the task force has struck out...

...Investigators discovered that on February Li, five days before the fundraiser, $15o,000 had been transferred by wire from the Bank of China Macau account of San Kin Yip, a property development company, to an account at Riggs Bank in Washington...

...The impression we've gotten from them has been, We're having the same problems that you're having.'" Burton staffers say FBI Director Louis Freeh, in private meetings with congressional investigators, has made it clear he is frustrated with the administration's actions...

...The president did not respond...

...One journalist brought up a statement made by Chinese President Jiang Zemin during a joint news conference a few days earlier...

...Berger did not address Burton's request that investigators go along on the presidential visit...

...On June 27, Burton wrote to the president: In view of the very serious allegations concerning Mr...

...Even as it made no headway with the Chinese, the administration did make belated progress on another campaign finance front...

...On April 6, National Security Adviser Samuel Berger responded to Burton...

...But Burton and his staff vow they will not stop the investigation...

...A primary target for Burton's investigators was the list of contributions that had been credited to Huang but which had been personally solicited by Clinton friend and fundraiser Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie...

...None...

...DIU RHO JIM The situation remained at an impasse until October, when Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited the United States...

...It's one thing to ask for cooperation — it's another thing to press for it...

...Burton—and the Justice Department, for that matter—face virtually insurmountable obstacles in dealing with China...

...Justice Department officials declined to discuss the issue on the record...

...What can Dan Burton do...

...This time, according to a State Department spokesman, Albright told Qian she had "serious 42 September 1998 • The American Spectator concerns" about the campaign fundraising allegations...

...It's fair to say that Burton viewed the secretary's performance as needlessly timid...

...We're an investigative team," LaBella says...

...Indeed, at times, Burton's investigators have felt that at least some officials in the Justice Department are on their side—and neither is having any luck with the State Department...

...On the morning of the fundraiser, Tries secretary wrote several sequentially-numbered checks totaling $37,5oo drawing on the money that had come in from Macau (before the wire transfer arrived, the account had a balance of just $10,459.55...

...some parts of the government of the United States have been little better...

...At 45...

...The crowd was a virtual who's who of the campaign finance scandal: John Huang, Charlie Trie, Ng Lap Seng, Ted Sioeng, Pauline Kanchanalak, and dozens of others were there...

...in the meantime, the State Department makes timid and ineffectual entreaties to China, while the president says publicly that he believes Jiang Zemin's claims of innocence...

...Clinton said Jiang was interested in a "narrow" question: "Whether people at high levels in the government of China had either sanctioned or participated in the BYRON YORK is an investigative reporter with TAS...

...Just what did he and Jiang say to each other during their conversation on campaign finance...

...Your leadership on pushing this issue is essential...

...Wu and his American business associate, Charlie Trie...

...According to congressional investigators, it should have been quite obvious that many attendees were ineligible to contribute to American campaigns...

...To Burton's team of investigators, it was as if the president were sending a message to those who are tracing foreign money in the '96 campaign: Case closed...

...The Department official said Trie was at a hotel in Peking but planned to The American Spectator • September 1998 check out soon, so the committee needed to act fast...

...We've had the highest officials of the United States make a request for cooperation...

...The Riggs account was controlled by Mr...

...Burton's staff let out a collective groan...

...What luck have you had?'" The investigator says it was clear that the Justice Department officials were not happy...

...Griffin and other investigators have discovered hundreds of questionable donations, but a look at a single series of contributions—just a small portion of the whole—helps to illustrate the kind of evidence they have unearthed...

...I'm not going to comment on the political sphere...

...On July 27, ABC correspondent Linda Douglass also interviewed Trie at his home away from home in China...

...Check #383, for $7,500, also went to Chen and Chu...

...San Kin Yip is owned by Ng Lap Seng, a Macau businessman and low-level Chinese government official also known by the Mandarin name "Mr...

...He knew the administration had yet to make any attempt to find Trie...

...HI WHILE THE WORLD WATCHES MONICA LEWINSKY, DAN BURTON PUSHES AHEAD ON CAMPAIGN F1NANCE—AND FINDS HIMSELF STYMIED BY THE WHITE HOUSE FOREIGN POLICY TEAM...

...But whatever it was asking, State was getting no help from Peking...

...It is still outstanding," LaBella says, adding on a faintly hopeful note that it has not yet been rejected...

...And from the beginning, the administration pledged to assist in the investigation...

...Jiang's answer, the president said, was clear—and convincing: He said they looked into that, and he was, obviously, certain, and I do believe him that he had not ordered or authorized or approved such a thing, and that he could find no evidence that anybody in governmental authority had done that...

...On February 4, Burton wrote to Albright, saying a Chinese embassy official had informed the committee that "the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing has given him standing instructions not to process visa requests for any Congressional entity seeking to visit China that is involved in the present campaign finance investigation...

...In January of this year, the chairman made plans to send four investigators to Hong Kong and Peking...

...As a sovereign country, they have their own laws, and they are not subject to the laws of the United States," the official says...

...Like we were going to get on a plane and go catch him at the hotel," the investigator says, "when we can't even get visas to China...

...President, it is important that we verify, not just trust, statements by Chinese leaders," he wrote...

...Other sources, however, suggest that members of the campaign finance task force are indeed dissatisfied with the meekness and slow pace of the State Department's handling of the China matter...

...It is our sincere hope," Burton wrote, "that you will ask President Jiang to arrange for the prompt return of Mr...

...The president did not respond...

...Burton's staff has discovered a substantial body of evidence pointing to Chinese involvement in campaign finance...

...HflOREIHE HMO till From the earliest days of the investigation, Burton needed two things from China: access to the people who have fled the United States and access to financial records from Chinese banks...

...Fundraiser Maria Hsia was also charged, as was Pauline Kanchanalak, another contributor who has fled the country...

...In addition, the president, Secretary Albright, the Attorney General and I have raised this matter with the People's Republic of China on a number of occasions and will continue to do so...

...As a result, a critical part of the investigation is stalled, awaiting information that can only come from China...

...usucE EIflVEU It would be easy to attribute the administration's stance toward Burton to the obvious antagonism that exists between the president and the chairman...

...And besides, said the president, "I certainly have been fully cooperative...

...We don't have anyone higher than the president...

...Trie to the United States for questioning before Congress and the Justice Department...

...Last week, Chinese officials said they didn't know if he was in China," Douglass said, "even though he's been in Beijing for weeks, living in a hotel registered under his own name...

...They said, We've got a number where Charlie Trie is going to be for the next couple of hours,"' recalls the investigator...

...But the reporters added that "Albright told the [Chinese] officials that she was sensitive to their denials, and her remarks were 'low key and informal:" Still, State Department spinners insisted that Albright had "laid down a marker that the United States would not tolerate such interference...

...The official also says the Department has accommodated Burton's wishes...

...We don't have an M-LAT agreement with China," LaBella says, "so all we can do is make a request" for information...

...The words are not particularly welcome at the Burton committee offices, where investigators say the administration simply has not seriously pursued the issue...

...So it doesn't...

...They were asking for the most basic access to continue the investigation, and the Chinese and the State Department were bringing up the Saturday night phone call as proof of full cooperation...

...As you know, the president has publicly encouraged everybody to cooperate with the campaign finance investigations, including governments as well as individuals...

...spokesman James Rubin professed shock at Burton's unhappiness...

...But the reporter at Clinton's news conference had also asked another question...

...The committee has come to the Department and said, 'We would like the Chinese to do x, y, and z," the official says...

...I told him," the president answered, "that if the government of China were contacted by any people doing their appropriate work I would appreciate their telling them whatever they could tell them to help them to resolve that to their satisfaction...

...several contributors passed Secret Service security checks by giving not their Social Security numbers, as is the standard practice, but their foreign passport numbers...

...They had no help from the Chinese, weren't able to get visas either, and then we said, 'Gee, can't you get any help from the administration?' They rolled their eyes...

...Trie...

...LaBella says his task force made such a request last year, which China quickly rejected...

...They'll never find me," Trie told Brokaw...

...The next week, Burton again wrote to Berger and Albright, asking to meet with them to discuss the Chinese investigation...

...That distressed me a great deal," Burton says...

...We made the calls, we didn't reach Trie, and that was that," the staffer says...

...But the Thompson investigation, hobbled by administration resistance and a restrictive time limit, was unable to answer a critical question: Where did the money come from in the first place...

...But when investigators tried to find out who put the money into the Macau account, the government of China refused to release any information...

...Earlier this year, prosecutors made another request...

...On June 11, two weeks before Clinton left, Burton tried one last time...

...So to break through China's opposition, the United States government would have to flex its diplomatic muscle to show the Chinese in unmistakable terms that they should cooperate...

...We subpoenaed bank records and went to the Trie accounts," Griffin says, "and we found a number of wire transfers coming in from the Bank of China Macau and the Bank of China Hong Kong...

...To the investigator and the rest of Burton's staff, the phone episode was a fiasco...

...They could make it a priority," a top staffer says...

...40 channeling of funds in violation of American law not only into the presidential campaign but into a number of congressional campaigns...

...while there has been extensive commentary on Attorney General Janet Reno's refusal to call for an independent counsel to investigate campaign finance, far less attention has been paid to the actions of the administration's foreign policy team—the president himself, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and National Security Adviser Samuel "Sandy" Berger—in response to requests from Burton's investigators...

...Two months later, the story took a peculiar turn—prompted not by any administration action but by news reports on television...

...On top of that, it's not a particularly popular cause...

...But Burton's is not the only campaign finance investigation underway in Washington...

...He said he would not cooperate with congressional investigators and boasted that he could hide out for as long as he liked—ten years, if needed...

...At some point, the investigators believe, despite the best efforts of the administration from the president on down, the full story of the campaign finance scandal will come to light...

...And Albright did nothing to ease the chairman's concerns when she met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen in April 1997...

...On February 19, 1996, the president attended a fundraising dinner at the elegant Hay Adams Hotel in Washington...

...Did Clinton suggest to Jiang that China should cooperate with Justice Depai Uiient and congressional investigations...

...Burton was appalled...

...Instead, they are if anything ratcheting up their research, pointing to new leads that offer still more evidence of a systematic plan to violate the election laws...

...I know you are well aware of the lack of cooperation," he wrote...

...Burton heard nothing from the State Department—until another television report set off an unlikely chain of events...

...National Security Adviser Berger later told reporters Clinton had brought the campaign finance question up with Jiang in private, and Jiang had again denied any Chinese government involvement...

...The Burton investigation, like Thompson's before it, ground to a halt...

...And no one had any idea where he was headed once he left the hotel...

...We said, 'How are you guys doing...

...A few weeks later, Burton got his answer, live from Hong Kong, when the president announced that he accepted Jiang's denial of any role in the fundraising scandal...

...Zhengwei Cheng and Xiping Wang wrote a check for $5,000...

...We find it surprising and stunning that they would imply that we would not be doing everything we can to help," Rubin told the New York Times...

...To get any further, the United States government—the Clinton administration — would have to pressure the Chinese to cooperate...

...Burton fully realizes his predicament: he is asking the president for help in uncovering information that might point to wrongdoing by the president and his top aides...

...Under fire from Republicans, Reno dismissed the head of the campaign task force and appointed California prosecutor Charles LaBella as the new chief investigator...

...Now, Clinton was saying he believed Jiang...

...n July 3, just before boarding Air Force One for the long flight back to Washington, Bill Clinton met in Hong Kong with reporters covering his trip to China...

...as part of his plea agreement Chung provided details of a scheme in which he received money from an official of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and donated part of it to the Democratic Party...

...Without an international law enforcement agreement, the Chinese don't have to do anything...

...In Hong Kong, the president was asked for more details...

...But Burton still needed information about those Bank of China accounts that were the source of so many illegal campaign contributions...

...Lawmakers were stunned to learn that several months earlier, when Reno said she had found no "specific and credible evidence" of wrongdoing by top officials, the task force simply concluded there was no need to investigate those top officials—thus ensuring that no specific and credible evidence would ever be found...

...Jiang came to Washington prepared to press a hard-line Chinese position on a range of issues from trade to human rights...

...Chinese Embassy officials recalled, for example, that last summer Beijing provided information pursuant to your Committee's request regarding the whereabouts of Yah Lin 'Charlie' Trie...

...Although he would discuss China's lack of cooperation, LaBella declined to reveal his personal reaction to the president's statement that he accepted Jiang Zemin's denial of Chinese involvement in the campaign finance affair...

...Jiang, Burton believes, has repeatedly lied when he has claimed the Chinese government played no role...

...Douglass reported Trie was considering returning to the United States, in part because the State Department had asked the Chinese government to help find him...

...Wu get the money to pass on to Chu, Wang, and others, who then passed it on to the Democratic National Committee...

...In an interview with TAS, Charles LaBella, the departing head of the campaign finance task force who has recommended that an independent counsel investigate the matter, declined to criticize the State Department...

...During a news conference in which he refused to specifically call for Trie to cooperate with the investigation, the president said the Department "has tried to work with the congressional committees with regard to anybody who might be out of this country, so I don't know what else we can do on that...

...Burton's staff started working the phones immediately, but couldn't get Trie on the line...

...In conversations between the staff and Freeh," one participant says, "Freeh has voiced most of the concerns in private that Burton has voiced in public...

...The only thing that Congress could do is as a whole body, both the House and Senate, to cut off Most Favored Nation status for China, or sanctions, but that is not likely to happen," Burton says...

...Asked whether the administration could do more, the official points to the lack of an M-LAT agreement with China...

...having TV reporters make the connection just emphasized the inadequacy of the administration's effort...

...In the weeks leading up to Jiang's visit, news reports indicated the Justice Department's own investigation of illegal contributions, in business for nearly a year, had achieved virtually nothing...

...What could they have done on such short notice...

...But according to the State Department, China was willing "to consider specific requests for assistance forwarded through diplomatic channels...

...Neither responded...

...He points out that China has not signed any of the agreements (known as M-LATs, or Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties) that guarantee cooperation between countries in law enforcement investigations...

...Zippo...

...WOW HE HIE JOST 0011IT 00100 [fill The trail that led congressional investigators to China began with a relatively small trove of documents...

...On March 31, Burton wrote again...

...And check #385, for $12,500, went to Keshi Zhan, the secretary who was writing the checks at San Kin Yip's Washington office...

...He admits it is unlikely he could persuade the entire Congress to take strong action against China...

...Absurd and ridiculous," he called the stories...

...Check #384, for $5,000, went to Zhengwei Cheng, who was Ming Chen's cousin, and his wife Xiping Wang...

...To my knowledge," he says, "China hasn't given us anything...

...In March, Johnny Chung, another figure in the scandal, pleaded guilty to making conduit contributions...

...Each check was in precisely the same amount that the contributors had received earlier in the day from the Riggs account...

...A week later, the State Department answered that it had "urged the Chinese to reconsider their decision" to deny the visas...

...We've asked the Chinese to cooperate...

...Shortly after her return to the United States, Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Brian Duffy quoted an unnamed government official as saying Albright raised her "concern" about the fundraising allegations...

...Among the $1.1 million contributed that night was $37,5oo from several people associated with Trie...

...But to do so would require the determined efforts of the secretary of state and the president—who of course has a personal and political stake in making sure that cooperation never happens...

...On June 24, "NBC Nightly News" anchorman Tom Brokaw interviewed Charlie Trie in Shanghai...

...It was the State Department...

...Clinton did not respond...

...For him to just take Jiang's word for it was an indication the president doesn't want any further light shed on this issue...

...Burton's probe, according to Waxman, is unnecessary and wasteful...

...That night at the fundraiser, Ming Chen and Yue Chu wrote two checks to the Democratic Party—one for $12,500 and another for $7,500...

...In a recent interview with TAS, Burton pointed to letter after letter he has written to the president, to the secretary of state, and to the national security adviser, asking for their assistance in persuading the Chinese to assist campaign finance investigators...

...Wu were involved in illegal conduit contributions...

...Frustrated, Burton 44 September 199 8 The American Spectator fired off one more letter to the president...

...If you don't have an agreement, then basically you can do what we have done...

...Check #382, for $12,5o0, went to a man named Ming Chen, who worked for a Peking restaurant owned by Mr...

...And at a joint Clinton/Jiang news conference at the summit's close, not a single reporter asked about the investigation...

...A few days later, on Saturday evening, August 2, the phone rang at the home of one of Burton's chief investigators...

...I accordingly request that you instruct the Secretary of State to contact the appropriate officials of the People's Republic of China and formally petition the PRC to help facilitate the return of Trie to the United States for questioning or, at a minimum, make him available for deposition by the Committee and its staff...

...But Waxman contends that Burton has only elaborated on what Senator Fred Thompson's campaign finance investigation proved months earlier...

...On August 6, Bill Clinton himself gave the seal of approval to the State Department's work...

...I would appreciate your immediate intervention with the Government of China in this matter," he told Albright...

...Trie denied being a conduit for campaign contributions from the Chinese government...

...A 43 few days before Jiang's arrival, Burton again wrote to Clinton, calling the summit a "unique opportunity" for the president to raise the campaign finance issue with the Chinese...

...Trie, and his recently corroborated presence in the People's Republic of China, the Committee requires your assistance and that of the State Department in obtaining evidence from Mr...

...According to interviews with several people involved in the campaign finance investigation, it is possible that at this moment the greatest threat to the probe comes not from the attorney general's intransigence on the issue of an independent counsel, but from the Clinton foreign policy establishment...

...It didn't happen...

...It all matched up...

...The American Spectator • September 1998 En' s of ST HIE State Department officials responsible for dealing with the Burton committee did not respond to telephone calls asking for comment But in an interview with TAS, a State Department official not directly involved in the matter strongly defended the administration's actions...

...Predictably, the suggestion went nowhere...

...Secretary of State Madeleine Albright first brought the matter up to the Chinese during a visit to Peking in February 1997...

...The Chinese again refused...

...Back home, Dan Burton, chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee and the man who is conducting the congressional investigation into campaign finance, couldn't quite believe his ears...

...He had heard that Clinton had moved up the date of his planned visit to China...

...We've done more than just voice concern," says the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity...

...There was no public mention of campaign finance...

...To the State Department, however, the incident was proof that it was cooperating fully with the congressional inquiry...

...TIffED HT THE SUMMIT On March 9, Burton once again took his complaint to the president...

...Where did Trie and Mr...

...Even Henry Waxman, Burton's chief Democratic antagonist on the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, concedes that the evidence "conclusively demonstrates" that Trie and Mr...

...In light of that, Burton concludes, "there's really not much we can do other than ask for China's cooperation," a strategy with no prospect of success...